Tension between Mbappé and Dembélé: France urged to clear the air before Turkey clash

A simmering conflict between Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé is poisoning the atmosphere within the France squad hours before the trip to Izmit to face Turkey, the first match under Zinedine Zidane’s watch.

According to a member of the French delegation cited by RMC Sport, the tension between the two forwards is noticeable on a daily basis. “If you look without paying attention, you see that they’re always sitting next to each other at the table, that they’re talking. But if you look closely, you see there’s a chill. When they saw each other again at the château, we understood straight away. There’s something between them, it’s not like it was before.” At the root of the rift: the Real Madrid forward’s comments about the Ballon d’Or, to which the Paris player reportedly responded with several public jabs.

Faced with this situation, voices are calling for the players to settle the dispute themselves, without staff intervention. Former defender Souleymane Diawara recounted a precedent he experienced at Marseille, where a dispute between Brandao and Mamadou Niang was resolved at a meeting between players, without the coach. “We told each other home truths. It lasted an hour, an hour and a half. We sorted out that problem. It’s better to sort it out between players without the coach or management,” he explained.

Emmanuel Petit shares this view. “I don’t know if a meeting with Zidane is wise. The players have their say too. When there were problems between players, we sorted them out among ourselves,” said the former midfielder. The two analysts agree on one point: France need their privacy to speak openly and prevent the tension between their two leaders from affecting their performance on the pitch against Turkey.