{"id":365253,"date":"2025-08-22T18:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365253\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:11:11","slug":"mbappes-star-teammate-at-france-under-fire-amid-coach-controversy-im-not-going-to-prostitute-myself-for-a-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/365253\/","title":{"rendered":"Mbappe’s star teammate at France under fire amid coach controversy: ‘I’m not going to prostitute myself for a player’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just one week into the 2025\u201326 Ligue 1<\/a><\/strong> season, one of the most prominent clubs in France <\/strong>is already embroiled in a major internal conflict involving one of the national team\u2019s stars and Kylian Mbappe<\/strong>\u2019s teammate.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, Olympique Marseille<\/a><\/strong> began their league campaign with a 1\u20130 loss away at Rennes<\/strong>. However, the result was quickly overshadowed by what happened after the final whistle: a heated altercation broke out in the locker room between Adrien Rabiot and his teammate Jonathan Rowe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The conflict escalated to the point that, in the hours following the incident, OM announced that both players had been removed from the squad<\/strong>, would take no further part in the season, and that the club would be open to transfer offers for either player.<\/p>\n

The decision sent shockwaves through Ligue 1, particularly given Rabiot<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s status as one of the league\u2019s top stars, a key figure at Olympique Marseille, and a regular for the French national team\u2014where he finished as a runner-up at the 2022 FIFA World Cup<\/strong> in Qatar alongside stars such as Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, <\/strong>and Antoine Griezmann.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\" Olympique Marseille head coach Roberto De Zerbi. <\/p>\n

On Friday, head coach Roberto De Zerbi<\/a><\/strong> addressed the situation in a press conference. \u201cI\u2019m not going to prostitute myself for a player who helps us win matches,\u201d <\/strong>he said, according to Diario AS. \u201cI won\u2019t lose my dignity just to avoid losing the championship. <\/strong>I will always support the club\u2026 In a soccer club, like anywhere else, there has to be a hierarchy. The club comes first. Before the players, there\u2019s the coach and the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Zerbi reveals details of the fight between Rabiot and Rowe <\/p>\n

In the same press conference, De Zerbi admitted that what happened in the locker room last Friday went beyond anything he had experienced in his career. \u201cThis fight\u2014where bodyguards had to defend us and separate the players\u2014it\u2019s the only time I\u2019ve seen something like that<\/strong>,\u201d said the Italian coach. \u201cI come from the street, I\u2019m used to this kind of stuff. But seeing bodyguards protecting us\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cNo teeth were knocked out, but I\u2019ve never seen anything like this fight. I saw the doctor trying to revive the other player on the ground, Rowe and Rabiot fighting<\/strong>\u2026 On the pitch you have to show courage. But not against your own teammates. No one should think they\u2019re above the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olympique Marseille\u2019s decision to move on from Rabiot <\/p>\n

Adrien Rabiot joined Olympique Marseille a year ago after a long stint with Juventus<\/strong>. In his first season with the club, the midfielder was instrumental, scoring 10 goals in 31 matches. That makes the decision to remove him from the roster a significant blow for the French side.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdrien is sorry. He feels the decision was too harsh, too severe,<\/strong>\u201d De Zerbi revealed. \u201cI told him that if he were my son and I were his coach, I would have done the same. Sometimes we suffer, we make decisions reluctantly \u2014 and that was the case here. But sometimes duty comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabiot\u2019s future is now unclear, with reports linking him to a potential move to Al Ittihad<\/a><\/strong> in the Saudi Pro League<\/strong>, where he would reunite with former France teammates Karim Benzema <\/strong>and N\u2019Golo Kante.<\/strong> Other speculation involves a potential swap deal between Barcelona <\/strong>and Olympique Marseille, which would include Marc Casado<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just one week into the 2025\u201326 Ligue 1 season, one of the most prominent clubs in France is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[37027,2000,299,36,128006,20074],"class_list":{"0":"post-365253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-adrien-rabiot","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-olympique-marseille","13":"tag-roberto-de-zerbi"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115073769964796602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365253","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=365253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}