Mbappé opens up after elimination: "It hurts, and it will hurt for some time"
After France finished fourth at the World Cup, Mbappé posted an emotional message and admitted the pain of elimination. Read what the star had to say.
Kylian Mbappé made no attempt to hide it. After France finished the Americas World Cup in fourth place, the number 10 took to social media and wrote what many were already feeling: "It hurts, and it will hurt for some time."
The post was long, emotional and honest. Mbappé spoke of pride — of wearing France's colours, of pushing past limits, of an "incredible story" shared with supporters, both those who followed from the stands and those who watched from home. But he did not shy away from acknowledging the frustration of a goal that slipped through his fingers.
The striker also mentioned the Golden Boot he won at the tournament, yet made clear how much the individual trophy weighed without the collective prize beside it: "It would have meant so much more alongside the World Cup," he admitted. And he went further: "Maybe we owed you a better ending. But we can't always choose how the story ends."
The message closed with thanks to his teammates — a passage that, according to Record, was cut from the original publication.
Golmetria's model, it should be noted, had already flagged France as a giant with a stumble on the horizon: their title probability stood at just 1.32% before the tournament — well below what the market implied, with an implied chance of 17.86%. The campaign confirmed that even the greatest individual talent is no guarantee of someone else's sixth star.
Mbappé is 26. The 2030 World Cup will come. The pain, as he himself said, will pass — but the question that lingers is: when will France finally pair the right star with the right moment?