How Ligue 1 coaches judge the Mbappé affair

An international break during which he declined the French team to recharge his batteries and clear his mind. Instead, Kylian Mbappé is the target of an investigation for rape and sexual assault, according to Swedish media, after an express trip with Nordi Mukiele to Stockholm. The prosecutor in charge of the case confirmed the existence of an investigation, but not of the protagonists, thus preserving their identities. While awaiting the end of the investigations by the Swedish police, and while the attacker is summoned by Real Madrid to play in Vigo this weekend, this story is inevitably shaking up French football.

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Most Ligue 1 coaches were even asked about this during their pre-match press conference. This concerns them more or less directly because what happened for one can happen for the other. “They are public men, they must protect themselves“, immediately reminds Antoine Kombouaré, specifying that the players, whether they want it or not, embody the club for which they play. “They are still young people, who also need to live, they cannot stay locked up at home. They just have to be careful about the places and people they frequent, because they represent FC Nantes.»

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Kombouaré: “if I told you what we did in our time»

The Canaries coach also regrets a time when the players, as was his case during the 80s and 90s, were not constantly watched. “Us, if I told you what we did in our time. Every evening after the matches, we went for drinks, we went out. This happened to us during the week, but it wasn’t a problem at all. Today it’s more complicated. Social media is terrible for them.» Player at OM and Nice during this same period, Eric Roy confirms his colleague’s version. He had a trick for going out without it being seen on the pitch. He favored water over alcohol.

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«I often went to nightclubs after matches, but I always had a bottle of Evian in my hand because I never drank in my life, I never smoked. And that didn’t stop me from having a good time after the matches when we wanted to celebrate something» assured the Brest technician this Thursday at a press conference. Aware that times have changed, he believes, like Kombouaré, that other rules must be imposed because of the image that the players project. They are employees of a football club, itself a social actor in a region. They are its representatives.

Sage : «if some people want to impose a handicap on themselves, it is their responsibility»

«We have a life charter which says that we must have an attitude and respect for the rules inside the club, but also outside.adds Eric Roy. Outside of it, we still represent an institution. So, we warn them that, even when they are in their private life and on off days or otherwise, they always link their image to the image of the club. And somewhere, it is very important for the institution to pay attention to it and not to tarnish its image. They also have this responsibility.» This protection is not necessarily to the taste of all the Ligue 1 coaches interviewed on this subject.

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Pierre Sage, for example, has a very different opinion. “The framework may be something necessary, but I prefer common sense and professionalism. When players are guided by that, it only bothers me from time to time, we go outside the box, on the contraryinsists the Lyonnais today. We do not read car meters at the beginning and end of the eveninghe continues, smiling. If a player wants to go out, not seen, not caught, he had better be good. On the other hand, if he’s not good, it’s not even me who blames him, it’s the team. That’s the way to go and when it’s difficult to play in this team, if some people want to impose a handicap on themselves, it’s their responsibility.»

Everyone’s responsibility is also Luis Enrique’s key word. Even though most of his players are under 30, they are still adults. It is their choice to go out at night and even take risks in certain cases. “I’m the coach of a football team, I’m a father, I take care of my children, but I’m the coach of the football team and I manage the players. Privacy belongs to the persons concerned and their families.” The only condition for the Spaniard, as for Sage, is to be good on the pitch and in training. The rest doesn’t matter to them, unless the red line is crossed, obviously.