He hadn’t imagined her like that. Thought for a moment that a finale could become so icy in this atmosphere that he had boiled over. Let her turn a deaf ear to the uproar he had just caused and let her close so cruelly when he had made her open like a flower. For a long time, Kylian Mbappé remained prostrate this Sunday on the lawn of Lusail Stadium. Hands on knees, eyes unfocused, he locked himself in his bubble, this world apart in which no one else on the lawn apart from Lionel Messi has probably traveled during his career.
The friendly taps of his teammates will have done nothing. The embrace of Didier Deschamps and Olivier Giroud or the words of Emmanuel Macron either. Boosted and triumphant a quarter of an hour earlier, it was like a ghost that the tricolor striker went to land on the sidelines of the Blues, leaving the Argentine winners to take complete possession of a lawn that looked like a carpet red.
A terrible outcome for those who were on the verge of getting a place in the Larousse. To enter it at the letter K, like “Kylianism”. Or to the letter M as “Mbappisme”, since the two, anyway, would have explained this ability to increase the emotions and the heartbeat of an entire country at the same time.
But Kylian Mbappé will not imitate King Pelé by becoming world champion for the second consecutive time. He will have to settle for being the first, since the Englishman Geoff Hurst in 1966, to score three goals in the World Cup final. Another figure that illustrates his greatness: with 12 goals, he is now the 6th top scorer in the history of the World Cup, tied with Pelé. A futile compensation, almost unfair as his performance in this final which already ranks among the most spectacular in history, could have been accompanied by a coronation like no other.
He finally exorcised Switzerland
Two days before his 24th birthday, the number 10 of the Blues is, like his partners, long missed his match. Until the devil that wanders inside him comes out of the box and overturns everything in his path: the Argentine furia, his hopes and his lead on the scoreboard. Because in two minutes, a penalty scored under a phenomenal bronca and a masterful volley, the PSG striker passed an electrocardiogram in Mondiovision to all his fellow citizens. In the stadium, the blue people, much less numerous and noisy than the impressive Argentine colony, suddenly found their voice, even felt their wings grow. But above all his magic tricks reminded those who had forgotten that there was indeed a game within the game with the greatest player in history and that he had the shoulders and the rest to be able to play it until ‘at the end.
Because even when Messi restored the advantage to the Albiceleste in this stifling extra time that many thought was played, he came back, again, to take responsibility and transform the penalty which delivered the Blues an invitation to the penalty shootout . He, who had failed last year at the Euro against Switzerland, succeeded in his, the first in the series. Not those who followed suit.
In this context, his passage on the stage set up in the center of the lawn to recover his top scorer trophy will only have a relative flavor for him. With eight goals scored, he nevertheless walks in the footsteps of another legend, Ronaldo the Brazilian being the last, in 2002, to have shaken the nets so much in a planetary tournament. But history, this Sunday, had chosen its side and it is in the opposite side that Leo Messi wrote his legend a little more and took a step ahead towards an eighth Ballon d’Or on the occasion. of what should be his last World Cup game. This will not be the case, of course, with Kylian Mbappé who, at 24, has still taken on a little weight, space and importance in this workforce where he now appears as the indisputable boss. “This tournament can serve the future of the France team since there is a kind of handover that has taken place between players who are in the last phase of their career and a new generation at the head of which is Kylian, ”explained Hugo Lloris. The captain did not specify whether this was an armband transmission. But “he showed strong leadership during this tournament and even more during the final,” he continued. We must continue to work with the best. There is no doubt that Kylian Mbappé does not see things differently.
