Kylian Mbappé runs past opposing defenders as fast as a whirlwind. His speed is more than 32 kilometers per hour.
This is what a respected American wrote Time magazine six years ago. The magazine presented the French striker as a rising star in football and one of the leaders of the next generation.
On the field, Mbappé has redeemed Time’s predictions many times. He is prize In France 13 times as the best scorer of the year and three times as the best player. He is French champion and world champion.
He is constantly compared to other top players – even to brazilian To Peléwho is considered by many to be the best football player of all time.
At the 2018 World Cup, Mbappé scored one of France’s title-clinching goals, becoming the first teenage player in 60 years to score in a World Cup final. The previous one was Pelé.
– Welcome to the club, Pelé tweeted to the young Frenchman.
Mbappé: Vote for the right party
Now the captain of the national team Mbappé is also taking on a social role. He is currently playing in the European football championships in Germany, and from there he has twice warned about extremists and urged the French to vote for the “right party”. The statements have been widely interpreted as opposing the far-right, anti-immigration national coalition.
– We have the opportunity to choose the future of our country. Not all young people are necessarily aware of how important this is, Mbappé said in June.
– That’s why I want to speak for young people. I want to give them a voice because I was like that when I was young. At the time, I thought that my voice wouldn’t change anything. But your voice can now make a difference.
You can watch Mbappé’s speech in the video below.
The far right was successful in the 1st round
The National Coalition won the first round of the French parliamentary elections held last Sunday. It received a third of the votes cast.
The decisive, second round will take place today, Sunday. Left and center parties have joined forces for the second round, and more than 200 of their candidates have dropped out for tactical reasons.
– We have a national coalition against us, President Emmanuel Macron summed up the first round on election night and called for a democratic coalition.
A 30-year-old conflict
Kylian Mbappé grew up in Bondy, an immigrant suburb of Paris, as the child of two immigrant parents. His father is from Cameroon and his mother from Algeria.
Now speaking out against extremists, Mbappé joins a long tradition of French national team footballers.
A conflict broke out between the football players and the far-right as early as 1996. It apparently started with the founder of the National Front, the predecessor of the National Alliance, Jean-Marie Le Pen about racist statements in the European Championship qualifiers that year.
Le Pen said it was artificial to bring players from abroad and call them the French national team. He also scolded the players for not being able to sing the French national anthem La Marseillaise.
Le Pen’s statement represented the typical way of thinking of the extreme right, according to which people of immigrant background cannot become truly French. The star player of that time Zinedine Zidane he called an Algerian born in France.
The national team players were surprised and hurt. Goalkeeper born in French Guiana Bernard Lama responded to Le Pen by saying he had never asked for his ancestors to be forced into slavery. Midfielder Didier Deschamps dismissed Le Pen’s statements as nonsense.
The historical conflict between the far-right and the national team is told, among other things Le Monde, The Guardian and Financial Times.
Football players have a lot of admirers
Mbappé is not the only player of the French national team who has taken a stand against the national coalition this summer. They also include the striker Marcus Thuram and a winger Ousmane Dembélé.
The opinions of football players can have an impact. Mbappé has more than 14 million followers on the short messaging service X and almost 120 million followers on Instagram. In addition, his statements have spread through international news agencies to different parts of the world.
On the other hand, it may be difficult for immigrant youth in suburban Paris to identify with the 25-year-old Mbappé, who has left the suburbs of Bondy far behind.
Mbappé is comparison of the economic magazine Forbes according to the world’s best-paid young athlete. He has sponsorship deals with Nike, Oakley and Hublot, known for sneakers, sunglasses and watches. He earns $110 million a year and lives in the 16th arrondissement, the most affluent area of Paris.
The young football fans interviewed by The Guardian say that they are disappointed with Mbappé: according to them, Mbappé has abandoned them.
Bardella criticized Mbappé’s statements
With the brilliant leader of the National Alliance With Jordan Bardella28, also has an immigrant background, and he too comes from the immigrant suburb of Drancy.
Bardella has said that the violence and drug trafficking he saw as a child have influenced his anti-immigration stances.
As expected, Bardella has already criticized Mbappé and other French national team players for their positions. Bardella says he appreciates the players as athletes, but as multi-millionaires, they shouldn’t be advising poor people how to vote.
The latest opinion polls show a victory for the national coalition, but not an absolute majority in the parliament.
Kylian Mbappé urges all French people to vote.
– We cannot hand our country over to these people. The situation is serious. The result of the first round was catastrophic, Mbappé said.
You can watch in the video below, what Mbappé said In Hamburg this week.
Sources: AFP, AP, Reuters