Mario De La Riva, journalist for the daily AS, explains to RMC Sport the difference in treatment between the French and Spanish media on the Kylian Mbappé affair.
The future of Pep Guardiola, the Trent Alexander-Arnold rumor at Real Madrid, the victory of Real basketball players against Panathinaikos in the Euroleague, the development of Marc-André Ter Stegen’s injury or even the upcoming duel between Barça and Sevilla in La Liga. Here are the various news items covered this Friday afternoon by the Spanish press.
As if there was no business around the captain of the France team and number 9 of Real. On the other side of the Pyrenees, the media remain very cautious about the accusations of rape and sexual assault targeting Kylian Mbappé according to the Swedish press. RMC Sport spoke with Mario De La Riva, journalist for the Real Madrid section of the famous AS newspaper, to better understand the difference in treatment between them and the French media.
“A bigger impact in France because he is the captain of the Blues and they were playing that day”
“First of all I think it’s important to say that currently there are no formal charges against Mbappé. This is something that we have always waited for, to see if the Swedish authorities were really doing some sort of of official accusation”, he recalls in the preamble. Absent from the last gathering of the Blues to protect himself following an injury, Mbappé took the opportunity to spend two days with relatives in Stockholm, where the courts confirmed the opening of an investigation for rape, without however specifying whether she targeted the former PSG scorer.
“For us in Spain, since the first day, Mbappé’s trip to Sweden is only a trip during his days of rest,” explains journalist Mario De La Riva.
“In France, it was the problem of a captain of the selection, who had just played two matches with his club, who had asked not to play with his selection and who at the time his selection was playing was on vacation. I I believe that from the first moment, this created a much greater media coverage in France, and I believe that this is the main difference in the treatment. I insist, we will see if there is an official accusation against Mbappé, but. from the first moment of Mbappé’s trip to Stockholm it had a greater impact in France because he is the captain of the Blues and they were playing that day.
In Spain, some even say they are surprised by the place occupied in the French media by what quickly became the Mbappé affair. “We were surprised that the other day the main French television news started talking about Kylian, and to see that it was the main news in France, when there was not even an accusation form of Swedish justice”, underlines Mario De La Riva. This Friday, there was no reference to the Mbappé affair on the front page of the AS newspaper.
RR with Edgar Groleau, in Madrid
