Thierry Henry defended Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe, claiming that his country has been unfairly criticised throughout his career. Mbappe has been in the spotlight lately, even though he missed the last three games with a knee issue. The controversy arose after he visited Paris to see a specialist and was reportedly pictured partying with Achraf Hakimi.
Speaking to Goal.com, the Arsenal legend pointed out that Mbappe is criticised for things he doesn’t do, calling it unfair.
“But unfortunately for Kylian, you find yourself in a situation when you give caviar to people all the time, and just one day out of the year that you don’t, boy you are you going to get murdered. It’s crazy, but that’s how it is. That’s a level of where he is”, he said.
‘There’s so much expectation on this guy’
“Sometimes he gets judged on what he is not doing or what he didn’t do yet. And people kind of brush [over] what he has done, which I’m like, ‘OK, I get it, I’m not saying he gets a pass, but can we be fair sometimes?’ There’s so much expectation on this guy since he’s 16, and he has almost always delivered. With the way he’s been behaving, and look at the stats, if you look at the trophies, if you look at the numbers, they ain’t bad.
“But, like I said, one day you don’t bring the caviar for your host, they will complain. That’s just how it is, and the player that he is, I think in a way, he has to just embrace that. That tells you that you are an outstanding player, because if not, they wouldn’t be talking about you. But all I know is, this guy played two World Cups only, and went to two finals. I mean, if he goes to a third one, it’s not even the history of France here, you’re talking about the history of the World Cup,” he added.
Mbappe also has the opportunity to level Cafu’s record of playing in three World Cup finals. Henry feels that it will depend on France’s squad depth and also on Didier Deschamps.
