France’s captain Kylian Mbappe said they owed their fans a better ending at the World Cup. The Les Bleus suffered a 2-0 loss in the World Cup semifinal against eventual winners Spain. France could not bring their best in the all-important game and they were totally outplayed by La Roja.
In the third-place playoff, France suffered a 6-4 loss against England. France had entered the tournament as one of the red-hot favorites and had played brilliantly till the semifinal clash against Spain.
France topped Group I and then defeated teams like Sweden, Paraguay and Morocco in the knockout stage.
“We’re not bringing a collective trophy home. It hurts, and it will hurt for a while,” Mbappé posted on Instagram on Monday.
“I won’t pretend otherwise. I’m proud to have won the Golden Boot, but it would have meant far more with the World Cup beside it. Maybe we owed you a better ending. But we don’t always get to choose how the story ends. We choose what we put into it, and we gave it everything. That much we can be proud of.”
Mbappe scored six goals in eight matches of the tournament and now has the most goals (22) in World Cup history. The forward gave his gratitude to his teammates.
“Thank you to my teammates,” Mbappé added. “Without their work, their runs, their passes, without the spirit that carried us from the first to the last, I could never have scored so many goals. This award belongs to the team as much as it belongs to me.
“As a kid, I dreamed of playing in a World Cup. Just one. I’ve now played in three, won one, and this year I had the immense honour of captaining my country. I will never forget it.”
The 27-year-old also gave his gratitude to Didier Deschamps, who left France’s head coach role after serving the team for 14 years.
“I’ve already said to Didier what I needed to say,” Mbappé said. “He knows. Thank you to him, to his entire staff, to the physios, the chefs, the fitness coaches, the drivers, and to everyone working behind the scenes who no-one ever sees, and without whom none of this would be possible. And thank you to everyone who welcomed us and supported us across the United States.”
Zinedine Zidane is expected to be Deschamps’ successor.
