Kylian Mbappe is a global superstar, but not universally embraced in France

Kylian Mbappé is the poster boy of French football, a genuine global superstar, leading a new generation of players who have supplanted Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world’s best.

The statistics underline the argument. Mbappé, at the age of 25, has scored 47 goals for France in only 79 appearances. He inspired his side to a World Cup final win in 2018 and scored a hat-trick in the final four years later when, despite ending up on the losing side, he took the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer, with eight goals.

The world, not just France, loves Mbappé and he will be one of the most eagerly watched players at this summer’s European Championship in Germany once more.

At his best, he is a force of nature on a football pitch. Quick, direct and almost impossible to stop when he is running at full speed. He is also a clinical finisher, who can score great goals in great numbers. Few players have an aura like it and he has proved time and again in a French shirt that he can achieve great things.

This will be his first tournament as captain. Much like England’s Harry Kane, Mbappé will be expected to lead from the front, commanding respect among team-mates and fans alike. If France are going to do well at the Euros, it is safe to assume that Mbappé will be pivotal once more.

Yet the football team that represents their nation – and has done so well – on the international stage goes into this tournament against a backdrop of civil and political division that has exposed a deep schism in attitudes and views on the other side of the English Channel.

Like so many western countries, there are perhaps two Frances. The urban, mainly liberal, progressive, multicultural cities – where the vast majority of the French team come from – and the more conservative, insular and increasingly disgruntled rest.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has just called a snap general election after a disastrous European election result for his Renaissance party, with the right-wing, populist National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, winning 31.4 per cent of the vote compared to their 14.6 per cent.

On Sunday, Mbappé addressed the elections directly, following on from his team-mate Marcus Thuram, calling for France to vote against extremes.

“We [the France team] are citizens, we cannot be disconnected from the world around us,” Mbappé said. “We know that we are in an important situation for our country, an unprecedented situation. I want to address the French people. The extremes are at the gates of power, we have the opportunity to choose the future of our country.

“I call on all young people to go and vote, to understand the gravity of the situation. I hope that my voice resonates as far as possible... I hope we will still be proud to wear this jersey on July 7.”

The Talking France podcast, an English-language show that looks into the big talking points in France’s social and political landscape, describes Mbappé as “far more than a footballer” and a national celebrity who “even people who have zero interest in football” have an interest in.

They also point out that he is a symbol of something more. Mbappé grew up in the deprived Parisian suburb of Bondy. His father is from Cameroon and his mother is of Algerian descent, and they point out on the podcast that there are millions of people living in suburbs like Bondy, from mixed-race backgrounds, or whose parents or grandparents were immigrants. It is a demographic that feels like it is ignored, especially by the mainstream media, unless it is negative stories.

These suburbs are a rich mine for football talent, with many arguing it has replaced the favelas of Brazil as the most productive breeding ground for elite football talent of which Mbappé is the best and highest profile.

There are large elements of France who have an “uneasy attitude towards the French national team”, argued John Lichfield of Talking France. “It dates back to the 1998 World Cup-winning side dubbed the ‘brown, black and white team’ that supposedly calmed race relations in France.”

Four years later, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine’s father, who was leader of the far-right, anti-immigration National Front, came second in the presidential elections. “He was very critical of that [1998] team,” added Lichfield. “And even went so far as to say it wasn’t a French team because they were all brown and black and not white.

“Football and politics are very intertwined in France and Mbappé, because he is such a great player, just as [Zinedine] Zidane was in that 90s generation [even though he tries to stay out of politics], he is caught up in that.”

The forthcoming national election takes place in July, with Marine Le Pen battling to replace Macron as president, and it will be a constant in the background as France – with Mbappé as the driving force in attack – look to become European champions.

Will there be even more pressure heaped on the shoulders of the team’s captain, especially as he is leaving Paris St-Germain, the club he has played for since 2017, for Real Madrid this summer?

“I think he will take it all in his stride,” argued French pundit Julien Laurens. “He is the favourite player, the star boy, the poster boy of France. There were a few PSG fans who have had a little bit of a love-hate relationship with him because of the Real Madrid [move], the feeling PSG were only a stop gap, but that was still a minority.

“For the whole country he is adored for what he has done on the pitch. He has stood up for the players when there was a clash with the Federation over marketing rights, he led that and people like that leadership.

“He doesn’t only care about scoring goals, winning trophies and earning lots of money. Getting the France captaincy was big for him and the country as a whole. When you have the best player in the world as your fellow countryman, nobody doesn’t like him really. There is love and admiration.”

But what about the rise of National Rally and the apparent divisions in French society that it has highlighted?

Of Le Pen and her party, Laurens said they have moved to “normalise their ideology a little bit” for the mainstream. He added: “They will very much be on the France bandwagon during the Euros before the election because they know it’s popular and they have to.

“Because it is Mbappé, he is above everyone else. The view of the extreme-right electorate is different because it is him and because of what he has achieved and what he has done for French football. All the different parties, all the different political opinions, they are still behind him.

“What is interesting is, more and more, he gets involved in social issues. He spoke out against the killing of a boy by police in the riots last summer, he spoke out about racism. He understands how important his voice is. He is not just a football player and a goalscorer. It is something Zidane and [Thierry] Henry did not do.

“If Le Pen and her party win the election next month, I think he will be quite vocal in his opposition to it. But it will not be a distraction for him or the team.”