Seven words, and the question was closed
“Kylian Mbappé will be my captain.” Zinedine Zidane dealt with it on Friday at the French Football Federation headquarters, on the same day he named his first squad. No suspense, no internal debate. Mbappé keeps the armband he already wore under Didier Deschamps.
The numbers make the call easy enough. He is still France’s record scorer, 66 goals in 106 caps, and he has held the captaincy since Deschamps handed it to him in 2023. Zidane sees no reason to pull apart a hierarchy that is already functioning.
Try it for $0.99.
Four games to start with
Zidane was appointed on 28 July, taking over from Deschamps after 14 years. His opening stretch is a Nations League run: Turkey and Belgium at the end of September, then Italy and Belgium again in early October at the Stade de France.
The 23 leaves out Aurélien Tchouaméni and Marcus Thuram while bringing in five uncapped players, Toulouse goalkeeper Guillaume Restes among them. Mbappé walks back into an attack that still has Ousmane Dembélé and Michael Olise beside him, wearing the same armband he wore at the World Cup.
Discover the rest of the Football news on our mathodds website and app!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply