KYLIAN MBAPPÉ UNDER FIRE FOR MISSING FRANCE CAMP AS CAPTAIN

France captain Kylian Mbappé is facing criticism in his home country for skipping Les Bleus' Nations League games against Israel and Belgium while being available to play for Real Madrid.

The forward picked up a muscle injury last month but made his return to the pitch in the Champions League last Wednesday as Madrid suffered a shock defeat to Lille.

France coach Didier Deschamps left Mbappé out of the squad he announced on Thursday, saying the 25-year-old lacked preparation, having played too few matches.

Mbappé started Madrid's LaLiga win against Villarreal on Saturday, though he was substituted after 71 minutes.

"Either you're injured, and you don't play with your club and you're not called up in the national team," former France international Maxime Bossis told French sports daily L'Equipe on Monday.

"But when you come off the bench in the Champions League and you start a league game, it makes things fuzzy. He's a special player. We've known that with Michel Platini, when we still wanted him with us when he was injured."

Mbappé's situation is more complicated because the former Paris Saint-Germain player is the national team captain after being handed the armband ahead of Antoine Griezmann, who last week announced his retirement from international football.

Griezmann's commitment to Les Bleus was never in doubt as the Atlético Madrid forward played a record 84 consecutive matches for his country between 2017 and 2024.

"As a captain [Mbappé] must be an example for the fans, and he has not been," Fabien Bonnet, spokesperson for the Irresistibles Francais, the main France supporters' group, told L'Equipe.

"What emerges is that the real captain, Antoine Griezmann, is gone."

France, second in Group A, face Israel in Budapest on Thursday and travel to Brussels to play Belgium on Monday.

- Reuters 

MAN UNITED CONFIRM LENY YORO TRANSFER, BEATBMADRID TO SIGNING

Leny Yoro has signed for Manchester United. Manchester United/Manchester United via Getty Images

 Manchester United have completed the signing of 18-year-old defender Leny Yoro from French Ligue 1 side Lille, the clubs confirmed Thursday.

United agreed a fee of €62 million ($67.6m), plus a potential €8m ($8.7m) in add-ons, to sign the France under-21 international, sources told ESPN.

Yoro has joined United despite interest from Real Madrid, after sources told ESPN that the Spanish side opted against engaging in a bidding war with the Premier League club for the centre-half.

Sources added that Yoro told Madrid of his intention to sign for United on Tuesday night after the Spanish club failed to make a move to sign him.

"Signing for a club with the stature and ambition of Manchester United so early in my career is an incredible honour," Yoro said as part of the announcement. "Since my first conversations with the club, they set out a clear plan for how I can develop in Manchester as part of this exciting project, and showed a lot of care for me and my family.

"I know about the history of young players at Manchester United and feel it can be the perfect place to reach my potential and achieve my ambitions, together with my new teammates. I cannot wait to get started."

The defender will join Joshua Zirkzee, who signed from Bologna on Sunday, at Old Trafford.

Both signings were supported by the club's new football leadership put into place over the last few months following the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe as a minority owner, as well as club scouts and manager Erik ten Hag, sources said.

"Leny is one of the most exciting young defenders in world football; he possesses every attribute needed to develop into a top-class centre-back," Man United's new sporting director Dan Ashworth said in a club statement. "Having had such an excellent start to his career we are excited to support him in reaching his immense potential here at Manchester United.

"This club has a fantastic record of developing young players, whether homegrown or brought in from elsewhere, and giving them the required guidance, time and patience to grow and flourish. Under Erik ten Hag and our excellent staff we will ensure that Leny has the perfect platform to achieve the success that everyone across the club is aiming for."

Zirkee and Yoro effectively replace forward Anthony Martial and defender Raphaël Varane after the experienced duo departed the club earlier this summer.

The club has not ruled out making further defensive signings, sources told ESPN, with the club continuing to admire Bayern Munich's Matthijs de Ligt and Everton's Jarrad Branthwaite. However, the transfer fees remain a potential stumbling block with ESPN reporting that United have already had a £50 million ($64m) bid rejected for Branthwaite,

Yoro is regarded as one of the brightest young defensive talents in Europe after becoming a first-team regular at Lille. He made his senior debut as a 16-year-old at the end of the 2021-22 season.

Information from ESPN's Mark Ogden contributed to this report.

- ESPN

EXCLUSIVE | ‘I DON’T BELIEVE IN IT. I THINK IT COULD KILL CHELSEA’ – FRANK LEBOEUF SLAMS MULTI-CLUB OWNERSHIP

As part of our extended interview with Frank Leboeuf, Get French Football News asked the former France international and 1998 World Champion for his thoughts on multi-club ownership and the state of football today.

You played for Strasbourg and then for Chelsea, who are now linked through the BlueCo Group. The Strasbourg fans are very sceptical about this and I wanted to know what you think of multi-club ownership.

For me it raises a big deontological problem – when you see that Manchester City and Girona are the same and if they play each other in the Champions League – well they can’t play each other – Girona would be out of the Champions League – it’s not normal and it’s something that I don’t understand. But there you go, it’s the new system, it’s a financial issue. I think it’s good that Chelsea is close to Strasbourg to help them out financially. But when you’re not close to a club you can’t give your opinion – you don’t know the region, and you don’t know how football works there. Strasbourg is known as “little Marseille” – the club belongs to the locals – it’s their club – it would be like asking Newcastle to do whatever Chelsea want.

You can put money in – no problem – but you can’t be the one making decisions if you don’t know the region, you don’t know how it works. So you need to be really careful because the fans are sceptical, they’re disappointed for the moment because they’re not seeing anything happen. And you get the impression that Chelsea are transferring their issues on to Strasbourg – so no players of experience, only youngsters, only trading business, all about the future and nothing for the present. And that raises issues for me, as neither at Strasbourg nor at Chelsea, will it work for me. I don’t believe in it. I think it could kill Chelsea, it could also lead Strasbourg towards a slow death. So it can bring money in but at some point you need results and if it’s to end up in Ligue 2, or in the Championship for Chelsea, then it won’t do.

And you mentioned City and Girona. The situation is even worse for ESTAC Troyes. Take Savio who is a Troyes player, has never played for them, impresses at Girona and moves to City and Troyes lose out…

Yes, well that’s the system and maybe those in charge at Troyes shouldn’t have accepted it, but then they needed the money. That’s the problem – money. And we have the issue with Ligue 1 and TV rights – I know Vincent Labrune and he’s trying to raise the price but Ligue 1 doesn’t have the attraction because the best players leave for the best Spanish, German or English clubs. We have a problem in terms of the clubs’ tax liability which makes it impossible for them to compete, so they lose all their best players. And this has been going on for 30 years, since the Bosman ruling. I was one of the first examples – as soon as I had the opportunity to leave, I left for Chelsea. By leaving for Chelsea, I earned twice as much money, because it costs as much for Chelsea as it did for Strasbourg – a player costs twice his fee, compared to an English club, in terms of tax. It’s not workable.

It’s a big problem. I saw this week Bielsa talking about how football is becoming more a business than a sport.

Yes, I saw that too. I’m not a fan of Bielsa but I thought what he said was very interesting – the more people watch, the more it becomes a business and the less it’s about the game. I watched Brazil against [Bielsa’s] Uruguay [in the Copa America] and it’s one of the worst matches I’ve watched in my life. I saw players falling over all the time, complaining all the time – it was horrific. I was watching it with Steve McManaman – we’re both here in the US at the moment so we watched it together – and we were saying it’s not possible, how can people pay for tickets to watch this match, it’s horrific, there is no football, there is nothing. It’s just a match with so much at stake that everyone is just playing out their own little drama – it’s no longer football.

Lebeouf was speaking to Get French Football News in association with BoyleSports, who offer the latest Euro 2024 Betting.

- GFFN | Jeremy Smith