“I know the outcome when Kylian Mbappé departs PSG: the club clinches the Champions League! (And maybe once more soon.)” Bardella expressed on X.
“He left PSG for Real Madrid, claiming it was to secure the Champions League. Meanwhile, PSG achieved it,” Le Pen stated in an interview with French radio RTL on Wednesday.
Le Pen and Bardella’s party has a history of a strained relationship with the country’s celebrated national football team.
In the past, far-right leadership has sparked controversy by criticizing the team’s racial composition, suggesting it is less French. In 1996, National Rally founder Jean-Marie Le Pen remarked that “bringing in players from abroad and calling them the French national team is artificial.”
Mbappé’s current club, the Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, dominated the Champions League for most of the last decade but has experienced two lackluster seasons since the French star joined.
The 27-year-old is under pressure again as he leads the French team in this summer’s FIFA World Cup hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., with Les Bleus as favorites. In Vanity Fair prior to the tournament, Mbappé defended his past statements urging voters to “oppose extremists seeking to split the country” before the 2024 snap elections.
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