After enduring racist abuse following his penalty miss at Euro 2020, Kylian Mbappe revealed he almost quit the France national team.
Last June, the world champions were knocked out by Switzerland in the round of 16 after Mbappe’s penalty kick was saved by Yann Sommer in a shootout.
In a newspaper interview published on Sunday, Noel Le Graet, the president of the French Football Federation, said that Mbappe was considering retiring from international football after the key penalty miss.
“I talked with him after the Euros, and he believed the Federation had failed to defend him after his missed penalty and the criticism on the networks,” Le Graet added.
“We met for five minutes in my office. He was angry, he didn’t want to play for the French team any more — which he obviously didn’t mean.
“You know how it is, he’s a winner, he was very frustrated, like all of us, by the elimination. He’s so media-friendly. He’s a great guy, much more collective than people think.”
Mbappe, on the other hand, has resorted to Twitter to claim that it was because of the racial slurs he experienced rather than because he was not backed following his miss.
“Yes finally I explained to him (Le Graet) above all that it was in relation to racism, and NOT to the penalty”. the Paris Saint-Germain star wrote.
Mbappe, who is 23 years old, has 57 caps for his country. In 2018, he was a member of France’s World Cup-winning squad.
