In an interview with JDD published this Sunday, Thierry Henry, the 1998 world champion and current star consultant for Amazon Prime where he deciphers Ligue 1 every week, spoke in particular about Kylian Mbappé and PSG. Henry’s praising words were obviously spoken before the Parisian’s superb and historic quadruple with the France team against Kazakhstan.
“It’s a bit easy, but Kylian, we both went through Clairefontaine, from the Parisian suburbs, we started in Monaco, the way of playing, explains Thierry Henry. I don’t compare myself to him, I hate it, but he’s a player that I really appreciate. When it is direct it is unstoppable. Mbappé is an attacker who can play everywhere in front. We cannot catalog it. I find it hard to understand why he was criticized so much in France (Editor’s note: part of the Parisian public criticized him for having expressed the wish to sign for Real Madrid last summer). What happened at the start of the season bothered me because he was always professional. Let’s be happy to have an outstanding player. “
Mbappé’s quadruplet has not gone unnoticed in Europe either. “Mbappé is unstoppable”, notes the Spanish daily Marca: “The party ended as it had started, with Mbappé as the protagonist (…) France is already in the World Cup and that’s scary. “ His Italian colleague, the Gazzetta dello Sport, dedicates a double page to it : “Mbappé is exaggerating! “. “He sends France to Qatar as a favorite”, strikes the Gazzetta.
And in Germany, the enthusiasm is also there. Bild, thus imitates the sound of four revolver shots by titling “Mbappeng-peng-peng-peng”
Far from his praise, Thierry Henry, still in the JDD, also returned to the eternal requirement which now escorts PSG and its trainer Mauricio Pochettino whose task is complex according to the current head of attackers with the Belgian selection. “People forget that this club was founded in 1970,” he recalls. Where he is, it is already extraordinary. At PSG, you will always be more observed than the others because it is Paris and this club has the players it has. “
“Pochettino is looking for a diagram”
Regarding the Argentinian coach, Thierry Henry specifies: “Without finding any excuse for Mauricio Pochettino: when so many players arrive at a staggered level, that you don’t have time to work with them by playing every three days, that they go into the national team whenever you can, it’s not easy to find a style… In Barça, you have to follow something because there is a story. Rinus Michels was there, Johan Cruyff came… Pochettino is looking for a pattern and eleven players to evolve in it ”.
