The bitterness of the world champions, favored and eliminated parties: Benzema, the prodigal son, is saved in the team of tensions
HISTORY
Leonardo Martinelli / paris
After missing his decisive rigor, with the bitter taste of disillusionment, Kylian Mbappé looks around, absorbed and stunned. Stretch your hands to your head, your eyes lost. Nobody, really nobody comes close to comforting the “contemporary hero” (the definition of a newspaper in the best days). Mbappé slips away towards the changing rooms, hopelessly alone. Here, the French woke up yesterday with that image, after witnessing the collapse of the “bleus” in the face of Switzerland.
«Annihilated» was the headline of «L’Équipe», the leading sports newspaper. To understand the bitterness (and yesterday at Orly airport, there were six fans six to welcome the “bleus”), one must think of the intoxication of the previous days. Some radio commentators dared to say that the French national team had to “mathematically” win. France (and it is a classic) had let itself be taken by a generalized arrogance: they were “the super-favorites” of the Europeans, with “the strongest attack in the world“. If you want, it is also the strength of a country, which convinces itself and sometimes wins. Who knows how to make a system. But when it breaks in the face of humble reality, it hurts. Yesterday, among other things, zero official reactions. Not even Emmanuel Macron, who had nothing to gain. Kylian on twitter, that same evening, had written: «I wanted to help the team but I failed. Finding sleep tonight will be difficult, but unfortunately it is the risks of this sport that I love so much ». “Nobody can blame him – coach Didier Deschamps urged him -. When you take such a responsibility, it can happen.
By the way, that cursed evening, which saw the collapse of the contemporary hero, the anti-hero, on the other hand, the bad boy of French football, took some satisfaction. We are talking about Karim Benzema. He (33 years old) has secured a pretty good double, while Mbappé (22 years old) has remained dry for all the European Championships.
Both come from a suburb (Parisian for Kylian, Lyon for Karim). But the first is a war machine, infallible even in life, committed to social issues (albeit a bit arrogant, say the gossips). Karim was kept away from the national team for five years for a bad blackmail story over a red light video of a Real Madrid teammate. It was his new debut in the “bleus”, the return of the prodigal son. The imperfect has done its part. –
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