PARIS.- Kylian Mbappé wants to be with France at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but his options were reduced this Thursday by the statements of the selectors Didier Deschamps and Thierry Henrywhich highlighted the obstacles that its inclusion would have.
Mbappé (25 years old) is in his farewell season for Paris Saint-Germain. He will surely be with France in the European Championship in June and July in Germany and dreams of also being called up for the Olympic tournament, reserved for Under-23 players, but with each team having the possibility of having three places for older players.
This Thursday, the French national team coach, Didier Deschamps, and the U-21 and Olympic team coach, Thierry Henry, announced their call-ups for this March’s matches and spoke about Mbappé’s case in their speech to the press.
“It is very difficult on a psychological and physical level to be able to chain two competitions like those, without having vacations,” Deschamps estimated about the possibility of Mbappé playing consecutively in the Euro Cup and the Olympic Games, with almost no rest time.
Mbappé ends his contract with PSG on June 30 and announced to its leaders that he will not renew it. Real Madrid has been rumored for some time as a possible destination, although no official announcement was made in this regard.
“Teams need their players at the beginning of the season,” Henry recalled.
The big European clubs will begin their new season in August and from July they will be immersed in their preseason, in which in recent years they have multiplied lucrative tours to North America or Asia.
Not everything is decided with Mbappé:
In any case, Henry did not rule out the idea of having Mbappé for the Olympic tournament.
“I don’t have anything certain. I depend on a yes or no from a club. And even if I have that approval and the club changes its coach in between, who tells me that I could have him then at that moment?” .
Deschamps pointed out that the names of the senior players who would compete in the Olympic Games in July and August would be known before the start of preparation for the Euro Cup, which opens on June 14.
FOUNTAIN: AFP
