Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé admitted that only his passion for the sport has stopped him from giving in to his “disgust” at the modern state of the game.
Mbappé is one of the world’s most successful and prominent strikers, a star for France and Real Madrid. Thrust into the spotlight since breaking through at Monaco as a teenager, the grounded 26-year-old has increasingly lost faith in the game he played on the streets of Paris.
“I’m fatalistic about what the world of soccer is, but not about what life is,” Mbappé told L’Équipe. “Life is magnificent. soccer is what it is. I like to say that people who go to the stadium are lucky enough to ‘just’ come to see a show and not know what goes on behind the scenes. Honestly, if I didn’t have this passion, the world of soccer would have disgusted me a long time ago.”
Mbappé was later asked how he would be able to deal with having children who hated soccer. “I hope so,” he said with a laugh. “But I think, unfortunately, a ball will never be far away... In any case, I would never advise my child to dabble in the world of soccer.”
“The more money you have, the more problems you have,” was Mbappé’s take-home message in a sentiment echoed by the Notorious BIG. “Some people don’t see that your life is changing; they want to keep the image of you as a child, when you were with them... But you’re not the same anymore. You have responsibilities, commitments, a job, and accountability.”
One of the problems Mbappé faces is knowing who to trust. The record-toppling striker describes his “refuge” as the gaggle of family and friends who have known him before fame took control, admitting that it can be difficult to assess the true intentions of new acquaintances.
“Just now, I said that we shouldn’t fall into paranoia... But you’re still a little paranoid,” Mbappé reasoned. “Why is he telling me that? What does he want from me? What does he expect from me? There are a lot of ‘whys.’ The line between being careful and being paranoid is very thin. You can come across as crazy.
“How many times have I heard people talk about a player and say, ‘He's crazy!’ No, he’s paranoid because there are only crazy people around him. Maybe he met a nice person, but he’s just had 20 encounters with crazy people, so he doubts, and that’s normal.”
READ THE LATEST SOCCER NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MATCH REACTION
This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Disgusted’—Kylian Mbappe Makes Brutal Admission About State of World Soccer.