In the pursuit of the world title with France, Kylian Mbappé can count on new support in Uzbekistan: the Les Bleus striker is very popular there since he appeared by chance in a photograph next to a flag of the Central Asian country.
After France’s 2-0 victory over Denmark, on Saturday (26), at the Qatar World Cup, Mbappé published a photo on his Instagram account, normal at first glance, in which he celebrates the goal with the crowd.
The presence of the Uzbek flag in the photo — three horizontal bands of blue, white and green, with a moon and 12 stars — hanging from the railing in front of Mbappé changed everything. The photo is already one of the most commented on the attacker’s profile, with around 75,000 comments. Most of them are “emojis” of the flag of the authoritarian country located 5 thousand kilometers from Paris.
For comparison purposes, the images of the Paris Saint-Germain striker with the World Cup trophy, from July 2018, or with Lionel Messi, in August 2021, have 76,000 and 76,500 comments, respectively.
“At first I was happy that Mbappé scored, but when I saw our flag it was even crazier. It’s like he had run towards our flag,” Vokhid Radjadov, a fan of the France national team in Tashkent, told AFP, with a laugh.
“I’m afraid Mbappé doesn’t know Uzbekistan, but thanks to this photo, many people will know our country”, celebrates this 57-year-old man. Firuzjan Yakublodjaev, an Uzbek “influencer”, said he was happy with this “funny coincidence”.
A former Soviet republic, Uzbekistan was ruled by Islam Karimov for a quarter of a century.
Since 2016, important economic and social reforms have been implemented in this country of 35 million inhabitants, whose government is accused of not respecting fundamental freedoms.
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