Opinion – Marina Izidro: Kylian Mbappé and how money doesn’t buy happiness

The World Cup sticker album fever has arrived at my house. This time my husband is a lot more excited than I am – I read an English mathematician’s statistic that completing it can cost over £800, and every time I look at the cake of repeats I wonder what can do with that money.

Anyway, it’s fun, especially when an ace comes out of one of the packs. Here, we already have, for example, the Portuguese Bruno Fernandes, the Polish Robert Lewandowski, the Englishman Jack Grealish. One of the most celebrated was that of Karim Benzema, and the figure of the Frenchman should become more valuable in the coming days.

Benzema, champion of Spain and the Champions League with Real Madrid last season, is favorite to win the Ballon d’Or award for the best player in the world from France Football magazine, which will be handed over on Monday (17). In the feminine, the dispute will be good, since among the nominees are the Spanish Alexia Putellas, from Barcelona, ​​the Norwegian Ada Hegerberg, who won the Champions League with Lyon, the Arsenal striker Beth Mead, who won the Eurocup with the England team, among other stars.

In the men’s, the list does not include names like Lionel Messi and Neymar, but has a teammate of theirs, Kylian Mbappé. The 23-year-old Frenchman occupies the pages of sports newspapers this week, but not for news related to the award. The story seems to be that of the poor rich boy who enchanted the world by winning the World Cup at the age of 19, talented and charismatic, but who, after flirting with Benzema’s club and ending up renewing with PSG until 2025 to win US$ 128 million (R$ 676 million) gross this season alone and become the highest paid player on the planet, now he wants to leave. Did anyone understand?

The rumors were strong enough for L’Équipe to carry the headline “Breakthrough point” on its cover. Playing alongside Neymar and Messi would no longer be enough, he would be dissatisfied with the centralized position in which he plays, he would have a strained relationship with coach Christophe Galtier and he would be frustrated with unfulfilled promises by the club at the time of the renewal, such as the hiring of a shirt 9.

It must be hard to keep your ego in check when the president of France asks you not to move out of the country, but this would be another case of the athlete who made fame and fortune early, a reflection of what happens when you give too much power to players of football too young? Or is it a genuinely dissatisfied genius who has every right to be where he feels happiest?

Emmanuel Petit, world champion with France in 1998 and now a TV commentator, criticized Mbappé’s stance. Thierry Henry, his idol, also spoke out, stating that he did not like the position he played in Barcelona, ​​but obeyed for the good of the team. “There’s a rule: if the boss asks you to do something, you do it, if it’s good for the team,” Henry said.

The French press believes that the star will not leave PSG in the winter transfer window in January, right after the World Cup. Already part of the English press points to a possible transfer to Liverpool. Let’s wait.

Mbappé’s figure has not yet appeared on the album back home. As in this edition it doesn’t have the player’s club in writing, if something changes in the next few months, at least it won’t be out of date.