While Paris Saint-Germain faces Lyon, Sunday evening, in one of the great shocks of the end of the season in Ligue 1, Raphaël Varane is the exceptional guest of Europe 1, Monday morning.
The Real Madrid defender gives a preview of his look at the level of PSG this season and the career of Kylian Mbappé, his young teammate in the France team.
INTERVIEW
Is this the year of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League?
Challenged as rarely in Ligue 1, with a shock at the top against Lyon, Sunday evening (9 p.m.), the capital club will face Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the European competition in early April.
A revenge to win against the Bavarians to get closer to a title long awaited since the arrival of Qatari funds at the club, ten years ago.
For Raphaël Varane, defender of Real Madrid and exceptional guest of Europe 1, Paris Saint-Germain can in any case win this year in the most prestigious of club competitions.
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"Paris has the qualities in its workforce to go far in this competition, they have already proven it. It is one of the candidate teams for the title," said the four-time winner of the competition (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018), before the gathering of the France team.
"They have gained experience over the past few years", including a final lost to Bayern Munich last year (0-1).
"They don't lack much, they have the weapons to go all the way."
A course "never easy"
However, the international tricolor is keen to temper the Parisian ardor, intoxicated by a good run last year and a clear qualification against Barça Lionel Messi in the round of 16.
"From the round of 16, we know that we will face the best teams in Europe. In 2018, we faced, from the round of 16 until the final, the champions of each country. It's never easy. . "
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Kylian Mbappé is one of the very great players
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In its supreme goal of winning the cup with big ears, Paris Saint-Germain can obviously count on its French nugget, Kylian Mbappé.
"Kylian is one of the very great players", greets Raphaël Varane at the microphone of Europe 1. "He is still young, but he has already progressed enormously and he continues to evolve. He is becoming more and more complete and it remains a scorer."
A Varane-Mbappé tandem at Real Madrid?
The distant duel of the young Frenchman with the "cyborg" Erling Braut Haaland, frenzied and powerful scorer of Borussia Dortmund, will he supplant the immense one that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been engaged in for fifteen years?
"It's always complicated, the comparisons", evacuates the defender.
"I think Messi and Cristiano are out of the ordinary. And they have a very special place in football history. But I think Kylian has the qualities to also mark his generation and football in general."
An imprint that "Kyky" could leave in Paris… or in Madrid, where his name circulates at regular intervals, between rumors and fantasies.
The two teammates could "of course" find themselves in the Merengue jersey and take up new challenges together, says Raphaël Varane: "Me, I aspire to play with the best players and Kylian is one of the best players in Europe."