Marine Le Pen’s party hits back at Kylian Mbappé criticism | National Rally
French football captain Kylian Mbappé angered Marine Le Pen’s far-right party after voicing concerns that he would win next year’s presidential election.
Mbappé, 27, who grew up in the northern suburbs of Paris in a family of Algerian and Cameroonian origin, said: Vanity Fair this week: “I know what it means when people like them come to power and what consequences it can have for my country.”
Jordan Bardella, 30, head of the anti-immigrant National Rally (RN), who went to the polls ahead of Le Pen’s presidential race in the spring, immediately hit back at the football star. He ripped off Mbappé, who left Paris Saint-Germain in 2024 to play for Real Madrid and lead PSG to win the Champions League the following year.
“I know what will happen when Kylian Mbappé leaves PSG: the club wins the Champions League! (And maybe a second time soon),” Bardella wrote on social media.
Le Pen told RTL radio on Wednesday that she found it reassuring that Mbappé did not want his own party to win because his strategy of leaving PSG to win at Real Madrid had not worked. “Frankly, I think football fans are free enough to know who to vote for without being influenced by Mbappé,” he said.
RN MP and party spokesman Julien Odoul said that as captain of the French team, Mbappé should represent all of France, including millions of RN voters, and not become a “political activist”.
Bardella, who could become the party’s presidential candidate this summer if the appeals court upholds Le Pen’s ban on candidacy, has a long-running feud with Mbappé.
During France’s early parliamentary elections in 2024, Mbappé, who is working to dispel stereotypes often held in various suburbs of Paris where he grew up, said the electoral gains made by the RN were “catastrophic”. Bardella responded and said it was a shame to see deep-pocketed athletes “teaching lessons to people who can’t make a living anymore, who don’t feel safe.”
Asked by Vanity Fair about the claim that he is too rich to discuss French politics, Mbappé said: “Even as a footballer, you are first and foremost a citizen. We are not detached from the world or what is happening in our country. People sometimes think that because we have money, because we are famous, such problems do not affect us.” However, he said that football players “have the right to have a say like everyone else.”
He said RN’s gains in parliament in 2024 shocked him and other football players. “We are citizens and we cannot just sit back and say everything will be okay. We have to fight the idea that a football player should just play and remain silent.”
Mbappé is the face of a national team that is often celebrated as a symbol of diversity and is widely tipped to win the World Cup this summer. It was born in 1998, when France’s World Cup-winning team starring Zinedine Zidane was mythologized as: “Black-Blanc-Beur” It is presented by (Black-White-Arab) and politicians that they can solve France’s deep-rooted identity problems with their victory.
William Thay, think tank Le MillenaireBardella’s response to Mbappé this week was politically astute, he told Reuters, as the player’s popularity in France had waned since his departure from PSG due to perceived arrogance and lackluster results at Real Madrid.
But Thay said the RN risked undermining its election strategy by attacking one of France’s biggest sports stars and did little to address moderates who fear the party was trying to deepen social divisions.
