Emmanuel Macron attended the World Cup final and comforted the Blues and Kylian Mbappé for a long time on the field and in the locker room after the defeat on Sunday, December 18.
His face was as closed as that of the Blues. After a double equalizer, it was on penalties that the France team lost to Argentina in the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar under the crestfallen eyes of Emmanuel Macron, present in the stands. Sunday, December 18. A difficult defeat for the players of Didier Deschamps and for the President of the Republic who we know is animated by the round ball. Moreover, the head of state took to the field to comfort the Blues and in particular Kylian Mbappé, man of the match on the French side with a hat-trick. On several occasions, Emmanuel Macron slipped encouraging words into the ear of the 24-year-old striker without succeeding in obtaining a smile from the top scorer of the 2022 World Cup. “Mbappé is a very great player but he is young, I told him said he was only 24, said Emmanuel Macron to the press after the match. […] I said he made us very proud and in the end we lost a football game, we went to nothing. It’s sports.”
Emmanuel Macron also went to the locker room of the France team after the long minutes spent on the Lusail pitch. A moment during which the President of the Republic reminded the players that they “made us immensely proud”. “You have made millions of French men and women dream, you have played great football”, launched the Head of State, giving the impression of stepping out of his role to almost adopt that of coach, next to a Didier Deschamps with a closed face and facing the extinguished players. And the politician added: “The lessons you will learn, there will undoubtedly be regrets after this match but […] you are a great team! So there you go, tonight it’s going to be tough but tomorrow we’re going to attack again because that’s how we win them.”
Emmanuel Macon on the lawn to console the Blues
“Congratulations to the France team for its journey and its fighting spirit in this World Cup. You have thrilled the Nation and the supporters of the whole world”, repeated Emmanuel Macron again at the end of the World Cup on Twitter, congratulating the Argentina for their victory. But the President of the Republic stretched out in front of the media to describe the exploits of the Blues: “We were very far at the end of the first period. It has already happened, there have been comebacks like that but It’s very rare in the history of football. We came back tremendously. It’s extraordinary what Mbappé did, but the whole team. We were hungry again. I believed in it immensely. Afterwards, we did a second miracle coming out of nowhere. And we had the match point”. A speech in which Emmanuel Macron would have done too much? The Head of State is not the last to know about football, but his omnipresence has raised questions, especially in places where we expected to see coach Didier Deschamps greet and comfort his players. Which was much more discreet and above all less talkative.
His speech in the locker room combined with his many hugs on the lawn with the players, Kylian Mbappé especially, Emmanuel Macron occupied many minutes to console the Blues, a little too much according to some Internet users. Some consider that the President of the Republic was too present and interfered in a moment when the France team needed to find themselves and the players to blame the blow. Others, on the contrary, welcome Emmanuel Macron’s choice to stay until the end despite the defeat.