Petit: Mbappé Lacks Leadership On and Off the Pitch, He’s Not Worthy of Being Captain for France

In an interview with RMC TV, French football legend and 1998 World Cup champion Emmanuel Petit pointed out that Kylian Mbappé is an unworthy captain, lacking leadership both on and off the pitch since taking the armband.

Using the French word “indigne” (unworthy) to express his view, Petit said, “Football is like this; you win if you’re good enough, you go home if you’re not. It’s as simple as that, and the French team wasn’t good enough. In my opinion, Mbappé isn’t a capable captain. Since he took over the captaincy, the signals he’s been sending aren’t what you’d expect from a great captain. This applies to leadership, and also to his comments about his teammates. When he says ‘I’m not getting good balls,’ ‘I don’t have Pogba in my team,’ ‘Griezmann isn’t a top European player’… how can a captain blame his partners? Is that what a leader does?”

Currently, when Mbappé’s fans defend him, they usually cite two excuses. The first one is that he played wearing a mask, which affected his performance. To this, Petit is dismissive: “He’s not the first player to play in a mask, nor will he be the last. Is it necessary to make a big deal out of it! When he received the captain’s armband, he had demands, but in my view, whether on or off the pitch, he has no leadership qualities. I’ve never seen him inspire his teammates.”

The second excuse given by Mbappé’s fans is that in the past six months, he faced various issues at Paris Saint-Germain, which significantly impacted his form. Petit counters this by saying, “If he played every game with PSG over the last six months, he had ample time to prepare physically. I remember his statement before the Euros was ‘I’m more concerned about my mental state than physical strength.’ But he was poor mentally, and physically too, and being captain, it’s a failure. Bottom line, for me, he’s unworthy of the captaincy!”

During his career, Petit played for Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona, and Chelsea. He served France for 13 years, making 63 appearances, and was part of the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship-winning squads, scoring in the 1998 World Cup final. He is recognized as a legendary figure in French football.