The story of Randal Kolo Muani: the pain of failing hand in hand with Dibu Martínez and the racist insults

Randal Kolo Muani entered the World Cup through the window. From one day to the next he was training with his teammates from France and would even be key to scoring against Morocco in the semifinals. However, fate was not so good: he failed an incredible one-on-one against Emiliano Martínez in the final with Argentina.

Also read: The players of the Argentine National Team, after the World Cup: family reunions, celebrations and tributes

The attacker from Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany was called urgently in mid-November, just a few days before his debut in Qatar, due to the injury already suffered in Doha by Nkunku, one of those who had to leave the concentration; the other was Benzema.

The story of Randal Kolo Muani with Kylian Mbappé

Muani has a very close bond with Mbappe: born 15 days earlier in Bondy. It is a town on the outskirts of Paris where the current PSG striker spent his childhood, and he was trained as a player, a place where many soccer schools and academies are located, as well as being a scene highly visited by “talent scouts.”

Bondy is in the Île-de-France region. There live 12 million people, 18 percent of the country’s population. It is the French representation of the Conurbano.

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In fact, in the World Cup there are thirty players who were born there, not only in the French team but also in other African countries that have a strong link with France.

Mbappé came from there. The French soccer star was born on December 20, 1993 and is 23 years old. He trained in football at AS Bondy, the most important club in the area and from which he made the jump to Monaco. In that same institution, which is one of the top seedbeds in France, he lived with Kylian, a boy born two weeks earlier.

Kolo Muani is from December 5, 1998 and, unlike Mbappé, he is playing his first World Cup, which he entered through the window. He also trained at AS Bondy, where Kylian’s father -Wilfried- continues to work as one of the coaches. Another name in the Deschamps squad that came from the same club is William Saliba.

Of course, Mbappé’s meteoric growth put Kolo Muani in the background when AS Bondy talks about the stars that have emerged on their pitches. Even so, his growth is remarkable. His first club as a professional was Nantes, where he became a starter after the tragedy of Argentine Emiliano Sala, who left the club to be transferred to Cardiff and died in a plane crash while traveling to Scotland to sign.

In Nantes he won the French Cup this year. His goals (23 in 87 games) allowed Eintracht Frankfurt, who have just priced him at 60 million euros. he did it because Muani added 23 games played in the team of the last UEFA Europa League champions: taking into account all competitions (between local and international tournaments), he scored eight goals and generated 11 assists.

A goal on the first ball he touched

He arrived at the World Cup with just two games played, both in September (counting Austria and Denmark) in the Nations League. In the French team’s debut, in the 4-1 win against Australia, he watched the game from the substitute bench, as well as in the 2-1 defeat against Denmark. He only played 90 minutes in the last game of group D, when Tunisia stunned France’s alternative team by beating them 1-0.

He also did not play in the round of 16 or in the quarterfinals, against Poland and England, respectively, but he did added minutes and a goal in the semifinal against Morocco, to convert to 11 of the end in replacement of Dembelé and on the first ball he touched.

Also read: Kylian Mbappé made a defiant gesture when asked about Lionel Messi and the video went viral

He arrived at the World Cup with just two games played, both in September (counting Austria and Denmark) in the Nations League. In Qatar he had little action but he still delivered: he started the defeat against Tunisia at the end of the group stage, and made it 2-0 against Morocco to give France peace of mind on the way to the final.

The incredible goal that Kolo Muani missed in the final with Argentina

There were only 30 seconds left in the game when the French striker won the position from Nicolás Otamendi and went hand in hand with Emiliano Martínez. The ball bounced inside the area and Kolo Muani fired an impressive point-blank shot.

But there was Dibu, who stretched out his left leg and took the shot with some luxurious reflexes. Argentina survived and won thanks to that majestic cover, perhaps the most important in the history of national football.

Kolo Muani suffered racist attacks after the defeat of France

Kingsley Coman, Randal Kolo Muani and Aurélien Tchouaméni were the players who received racist attacks from their own fans on social media.

Coman was marked for missing his penalty in the final shootout, Kolo Muani He was the protagonist of the last play in which the Argentine goalkeeper prevented the French triumph with his left foot and Tchouaméni He threw his shot outside.

The French Football Federation will denounce the racist insults uttered on social networks against its players after the defeat against Argentina in the final of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

“Following the World Cup final, several players from the France team were the subject of racist, hateful and unacceptable statements on social media. The FFF condemns them and is going to file complaints against their perpetrators”, the FFF transmitted via Twitter.