Thierry Henry hit out at Kylian Mbappe amid growing rumours that the France forward wants to leave Paris St Germain over his positioning as a lone forward and failed promises by the board.
Reports in the French and Spanish media claimed that the 23-year-old Mbappe, who extended his contract with PSG until 2025 after looking close to joining Real Madrid during the close season, wants to leave the French champions in January.
PSG have denied Mbappe asked to leave. “Nobody likes to be exposed to what you’re not good at, you just don’t like it,” Henry said on CBS Sports on Tuesday.
In coach Christophe Galtier’s 3-4-3 formation, Mbappe is being used as the lone forward with Lionel Messi and Neymar on either side, while he has more freedom with France, where he lately played around Olivier Giroud. “But there is something that is bigger than anything else and that is the club,” former France and Arsenal forward Henry said.
“But did they make him feel like the club was the most important thing or did they make him feel like he was more important than the club?” Henry, France’s all-time top scorer (51 goals), said he had a similar experience at Barcelona.
Canada hold France
A spirited Canada held a formidable France to a 1-1 draw in a group D match of the U-17 Women’s World Cup here on Wednesday. Anabelle Chukwu gave Canada the lead in the 67th minute but Lucie Calba equalised within six minutes. In a Group C match in Navi Mumbai, Asian giants China beat Mexico 2-1.
Quao Ruiqi gave China the lead in the 49th minute by converting a penalty. Yu Xingyue made it 2-0 at the stroke of the 90th minute but Mexico pulled one back in the third minute of stoppage time through Katherin Guijarro.
‘Can do better’
India head coach Thomas Dennerby admitted that his team was no match for the US after it suffered a 0-8 humiliation on Tuesday but insisted that the home team is capable of playing better. “I did not expect to let in so many goals because defending has been quite good when they played against Sweden two and a half weeks ago. We defended very well, we had two shots on the bar and we were creating chances. But honestly, US were one level up,” the coach said. (PTI)
