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At 24, Kylian Mbappé is the new captain of the France team by coach Didier Deschamps to replace Hugo Lloris, who has retired from international football.
Mbappé (66 caps, 36 goals) accepted this new function after a discussion Monday evening with his coach. Deschamps also spoke with Antoine Griezmann, promoted to vice-captain in place of Raphaël Varane, who also retired from international duty after the 2022 World Cup.
The PSG striker, whose first selection in blue dates back to March 2017, will play his first match as captain on Friday against the Netherlands at the Stade de France at the start of qualifying for Euro 2024.
2018 world champion and 2022 vice-world champion, Mbappé had been expected for several weeks to inherit the armband, after guiding the Blues to their second straight final in Qatar in December.
The Parisian, technical leader and whose voice carries more and more in the locker room, scored a hat-trick against Argentina in the final and succeeded in his shot on goal, without managing to offer a third planetary title to the Habs.
He has also gained importance in group life, relaunching in 2022 the question of collective image rights, which he wishes to see reformed.
On the first day of the rally on Monday, Didier Deschamps had let the suspense hang over the identity of the future captain, assuring in a press conference at the start of the afternoon that he intended to “use these first days to discuss it with the players concerned. “.
The discussions were finally held Monday evening at the Clairefontaine training center.
Mbappé has the heavy task of replacing Hugo Lloris, holder of the armband for more than ten years, the first time in 2010.
The latter, a trusted man of Deschamps, had broad responsibilities, including representation of the Blues to the Federation or to the media. He went to a press conference on the eve of each match he played as a holder.
In his club, Mbappé is one of the vice-captains behind the N.1 wearer of the armband, the Brazilian Marquinhos. Sunday during the defeat of PSG against Rennes (2-0), he was for example captain in the absence of the latter.
