{"id":1022322,"date":"2026-06-12T17:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1022322\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T17:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:18:13","slug":"ousmane-dembele-responds-to-kylian-mbappe-abuse-before-frances-wc-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1022322\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousmane Dembele responds to Kylian Mbappe abuse before France&#8217;s WC opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>France forward Ousmane Dembele has defended captain Kylian Mbappe, saying criticism of the Real Madrid striker has become excessive as the national team prepare for the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Dembele, who has emerged as a key figure for France at the tournament and is a contender for this year\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or after helping Paris St Germain win the Champions League, told Spanish newspaper Marca that some commentators had gone too far in their assessment of his long-time teammate.<\/p>\n<p>Mbappe remains one of the most scrutinised figures in French football since leaving PSG and joining Real Madrid in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Despite still being a prolific scorer, the France captain came under criticism during a season in which Real failed to win either La Liga or the Champions League, while some pundits and supporters have questioned his leadership with the national team since he inherited the captaincy following Hugo Lloris\u2019s retirement from international football.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/2026-world-cup-power-rankings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Cup 2026 Power Rankings: Starting positions confirmed as Mexico threaten top ten<\/a><br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mbappe\u2019s performances, public appearances and even minor aspects of his behaviour regularly attract intense debate in France.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe criticism towards him is very, very unfair,\u201d Dembele said before France start their World Cup campaign against Senegal on Tuesday. \u201cSome people go a bit too far with the criticism of Kylian.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s an incredible player and a very good person off the pitch. Some people overdo the criticism because he\u2019s Kylian Mbappe. They shouldn\u2019t keep going after him. Whether he ties his shoelaces or not, whether he pulls up his socks or not\u2026 it\u2019s too much. He\u2019s still a human being.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the France team, he\u2019s very good with us, he\u2019s a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pair have developed a close relationship during their years together with Les Bleus. They are expected to play central roles in France\u2019s bid for a third World Cup title in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Dembele also paid tribute to coach Didier Deschamps, who has announced that he will step down after the World Cup following more than a decade in charge of the national side.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/world-cup-records-guarantee-never-broken-pele\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ten daft World Cup records which we absolutely guarantee will never be broken<\/a><br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s simply an exceptional coach,\u201d Dembele said. \u201cHe will forever remain a legend among French national team coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deschamps guided France to World Cup glory in 2018 and another final four years later.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the prospect of former France great Zinedine Zidane succeeding Deschamps, Dembele welcomed the idea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope to welcome him one day to the France bench,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m convinced he would do a fantastic job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zidane, who won the World Cup as a player in 1998 and later enjoyed major success coaching Real Madrid, has long been linked with the France job but has repeatedly declined to discuss the position while Deschamps remains in charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France forward Ousmane Dembele has defended captain Kylian Mbappe, saying criticism of the Real Madrid striker has become&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1022323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,225,15160,12,64135,1514],"class_list":["post-1022322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-home-page","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-news","tag-ousmane-dembele","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116738281228725963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}