Kylian Mbappé was criticised by one of his French teammates after Didier Deschamps' team lost 3-1 to Italy on Matchday 1 of the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League season. With this result, the 'Azurra' broke a 70-year streak without winning on French soil.
This tough defeat leaves them last in the table, so the goalkeeper of the French national team and AC Milan, Mike Maignan, made a strong self-criticism in the locker room, which caused problems in the French locker room, since his harsh words would not have pleased some of his teammates, including Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé.
Maignan's 'stick' to Mbappé
According to information from the media 'L'Équipe', Maignan "criticized in the locker room the behavior of some of his teammates." The goalkeeper was the first to arrive in the locker room and was "dejected" by what had happened. He was also "particularly irritated by certain attitudes," which caused him to express his anger once all his teammates arrived in the locker room. Milan's '1' would have questioned the "behavior of the stars" and stated that only two Italian rivals would have their place guaranteed in the French team's lineup. Maignan would have been upset by the lack of desire and aggressiveness shown by his teammates.
According to the aforementioned source, his speech lasted two minutes and included his anger at the weak collective attitude. After finishing his speech, neither Kylian Mbappé, who is the captain, nor Antoine Griezmann, the other leader of the team, decided to intervene in the situation. The French infer that the goalkeeper's criticism is against the Real Madrid player, who showed an "indolent attitude" to be the captain of the national team. The same applied to the Atlético player, who “did not show his usual generosity” last Friday.
Maignan admits that France is having a hard time
The goalkeeper spoke to reporters in the mixed zone after the match against Italy and said the following: “We wanted to start off after the Euro with a win, unfortunately we couldn't do it. It's clear that we're doing badly, the group is doing badly because we're competitors, we want to win. And then, unfortunately, we didn't do it and we have a match on Monday where we have to recover.”
As for what happened with his teammates, the Frenchman avoided going into details: “We talked in the locker room but that stays between us. We're going to analyse the match in a calm manner and we'll talk tomorrow. There's no need to worry, it's the competition, it's like that, when you lose a match, it's not the end of the world. We all have a role to play, we know that we must do better because the French team must win. We're not going to look for excuses, we're going to do a self-analysis,” he concluded. On September 9, France will face Belgium in the second round of the Nations League at the Groupama Stadium of Olympique de Lyon.