It’s happened again. Paris Saint-Germain‘s wait for an elusive UEFA Champions League title extends as Borussia Dortmund gained the upper hand in the semifinals. With Lionel Messi no longer at the club, this time it was Kylian Mbappe who was singled out by the French media.
L’Equipe, who was harsh on the Argentine star more than once, was critical of Mbappe’s performance in the series. The striker was given a 2 in the player ratings, the lowest score for a PSG player alongside Ousmane Dembele.
“Mbappé, the unfinished work (…), will never lift the Champions League with PSG. Kylian Mbappé will not have completed his mission, due to an unbeatable Borussia Dortmund, who defended him perfectly during the two matches, but also because of his own fault: he did almost everything wrong in 180 minutes,” the review raid.
The newspaper acknowledged Mbappe almost lead a comeback in the final minutes, yet they considered “a player like him shouldn’t wait so long before making a difference. With 18 balls lost (…), deployed on the left flank, despite it being his favorite zone, the captain of Les Bleus disappointed. His footprint in Paris will be tarnished forever.”
The 25-year-old was also destroyed by Le Parisien, who rated his performance with a 3.5: “One last sad dance. We hoped he would lead the way, instead, the world champion had all the difficulties in the world to generate danger while playing in his preferred zone, on the left, or to make notable differences. A volley (7′), a shot against the crossbar (86′), but apart from that, the attacker was very discreet, just like in the first leg.”
Now it’s Mbappe, before it was Messi
This is the first time Mbappe is exclusively under fire for a PSG loss, since the media used to point fingers at other stars before blaming the national hero. While Neymar was also criticized, Messi was frequently made a scapegoat to the team’s struggles in his two seasons at the Parc des Princes.
Messi was destroyed by the French press when PSG lost to Real Madrid in the 2021-22 UCL round of 16, and he was once again called out when the Parisians were eliminated by Bayern in the same stage the following season.
The 8x Ballon d’Or winner’s relationship with the French press and fans only got worse when Argentina beat France at the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, leading to his departure for Inter Miami in July 2023.
Mbappe expected to leave PSG for Real Madrid
Now that neither Neymar nor Messi are still in Paris, much of the blame for another European failure for PSG falls on Mbappe. But this may also have to do with the rumors about Kylian’s future.
The former Monaco star is expected to leave the French capital in the summer to join Real Madrid as a free agent, a dream move he postponed in 2022 to give it another shot at PSG. With his future probably outside France, the player seems to be no longer protected by the national media.