Mbappe: “I can’t play for people who think I’m a monkey… and I said I won’t play for them anymore”

The Mbappe case is still going on. Months go by, and little by little, news continues to emerge as to why Kylian has chosen to stay at PSG rather than sign for Real Madrid.

Emmanuel Macron’s role has been vital in this sense and Mbappe spoke about it again in an interview with Sports Illustrated. “We received several calls. In December, January, February, March…,” he admitted with a laugh, referring to the insistence of the French president.

He added: “Macron called me and said: “I know you want to leave, but I want you to know that you are important to France and I do not want you to leave. You have a chance to make history here. Everyone loves you”.

The Paris Saint-Germain star did not believe the head of state had called him: “I said I appreciated it. It really is crazy. The president calls you and asks you to stay.”

Mbappe also spoke about winning the 2018 World Cup: “It changed my life. I was already famous before, but after the World Cup it was crazy. It took me a while to learn to keep calm.”

Soon, he hit rock bottom. The penalty he missed against Switzerland in the round of 16 at Euro 2020 sparked a wave of criticism against Mbappe, most of which was racist, which led him to consider giving up playing for France.

“I thought I can’t play for people who think I’m a monkey,” Mbappe said. I will not play anymore. Then I thought with the people around me and they encouraged me to keep going.”

And he concluded: “There was another reason to continue, this is a new France and that is why I did not retire. It was a good message for young people to say, ‘We are stronger than all of this’.

source: marca