La Masia: The daring children of Ronald Koeman
PSG: "If Messi comes, you stay to cook the roast"
Everything goes too fast in football.
Except when it comes to lighting a new time.
On the sunny afternoon of July 1, 2018, in remote Kazan, an era in the sport seemed to be inaugurating.
The episode, one of the most shocking in the history of the World Cups, led of course to think about it.
Kylian Mbappé
, at that time still a 19-year-old boy although already with the halo of the chosen one, caught a ball 70 meters from the rival goal and began to run among Argentines.
It had nothing to do with the
Maradona
of the Azteca Stadium.
Mbappé's thing was speed and raw power.
Mascherano
, who ended the afternoon saying that he would no longer wear the albiceleste shirt, saw the Frenchman go by like lightning.
Only
Marcos Rojo
reached him
, who could take him ahead in the area so that he was
Griezmann
who will score a penalty.
Mbappé scored that day two goals (4-3) that qualified France for the quarterfinals of a tournament that he would end up winning.
He left
Leo Messi
speechless
in his World Cup utopia.
But it did not consummate at once what everyone predicted, the swift birth of a new stage.
For Mbappé, who visits the Camp Nou this Tuesday without the escort of
Di María
and, above all,
Neymar
, the individual grand prizes have been elusive for now.
In the FIFA The Best, whose last accolade was won by veteran
Robert Lewandowski
, the boy from the neighborhood Bondy finished in seventh place.
Ahead were also old heroes, such as
Cristiano Ronaldo
, Messi,
Mané
,
De Bruyne
and
Salah
.
While the jewel in the crown that his country offers, the
France Football
Ballon d'Or
, he did not take it too much into account in its last edition, that of 2019. Mbappé was sixth.
On January 22, the French radio giant RTL released a survey in which 1,005 people representing French society had to value the figure of Mbappé.
In almost every parameter, the PSG striker saw scores drop from the same questions asked a year ago.
If in November 2019 79% of the French thought that Mbappé had the potential to become the best footballer in the world, in January 2021 that percentage was already 72%.
Very high, true, but already far from the hyperbole of his first years in the elite.
What the respondents did not show doubts is in considering that, at 22 years old and despite being overcoming a small game crisis, Mbappé is more necessary for PSG (73%) than Leo Messi and his 33 years (24%) .
Meanwhile, the football industry is waiting for the French striker and
Nasser Al-Khelaifi,
the Parisian club's major player, to clarify their positions on the contract that ends on June 30, 2022.
The financial Fair Play
Mbappé's salary with PSG, according to the
L'Équipe
newspaper
, amounts to
22.8 million euros gross per year
.
The family aspires to double that amount.
And he begins to warn that the Qatari royalty will do everything in their power to take over Messi's services next summer.
Financial Fair Play, no matter how imaginative the formulas, should not leave room for PSG for Neymar and Mbappé to share a dressing room with Messi.
In addition, PSG is presented with the opportunity in the next market to recover a good part of the 180 million euros paid to Monaco through that compulsory purchase assignment with which it dodged financial controls after paying 222 million for Neymar.
Mbappé is perhaps the only footballer for whom
Florentino Pérez
would be willing to open Real Madrid's safe to lead the project at the new Bernabéu, with
Haaland
in the bedroom.
A moderate optimism has been settling in Barcelona in recent days regarding tonight's round of 16 clash against PSG.
Tuchel
fired
, with
Mauricio Pochettino
still taking the measure of some footballers who he is making run as if there were no tomorrow, and with the low capital of Neymar, the reason for the team being, the concern is centralized in the legs of Mbappé.
Even more so when the Barça defense, so given to chirigota this season, must contain a player who, in addition to being a torment in open spaces, is related to the goal.
He is the top scorer in Ligue 1 (16 goals, three more than
Depay
).
And this season, Mbappé has already scored 18 goals in 28 games, just one less than Messi in the same number of stakes.
The unknown of Piqué
"I will not subject Mbappé to a special marking,"
Koeman
admitted
the day before with discretion.
It would be crazy in the face of physical qualities that nobody equals on the Barça side.
"But we must be well organized in defense when we lose the ball."
That is to say, watch that
Busquets'
back
is not that steppe through which a week ago the central
Koundé
advanced whistling.
The configuration of the Barcelona defense seems called to define the first chapter of the tie.
Gerard Piqué
, despite having been
absent
for 11 weeks, is going like crazy to play.
On Monday he trained with apparent normality with his teammates, despite the fact that doctors had predicted an absence of four months.
Koeman's
anger
towards
Lenglet
also continues to favor
Samuel Umtiti's
candidacy
, despite his poor physical condition.
Araujo
definitively
ruled out
,
Mingueza
, a
diligent
boy, could move to the defensive axis so that
Sergiño Dest
, addicted to nursing, could progress down the right-handed lane, a Parisian weak point with
Kurzawa
.
The Champions League, Barcelona knows it well, was always relentless with doubting teams.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Leo Messi
Neymar
Ronald Koeman
League 1
Gerard Piqué
Sergiño Dest
France National Soccer Team
sports
football
Champions League
LaLiga Santander 2020 - 2021Alarm in Barça: Araujo leaves the defense more in the box
LaLiga Santander 2020 - 2021The Trincao revolution fosters another agonizing comeback for Barça
FútbolDi María: "There are many possibilities that Messi will come to PSG"
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