Eight years ago, Kylian Mbappé made his World Cup debut as an electric wide forward who bashed in four goals in seven matches as France won the tournament for just the second time. He was 19 years old.
Four years later, he bagged a hat trick in what some consider to be the greatest-ever World Cup match, dragging his nation back into the game against Lionel Messi’s Argentina before losing in a penalty shoot-out. French sports daily L’Équipe called him “A King Without a Crown.”
But he’ll enter his third World Cup this summer in more turbulent times. He’s scoring goals by the hatful for his club, Real Madrid—41 in 41 matches this season—but a growing number of fans and pundits blame him for the team’s failure to win a major trophy since he arrived. The club he left—PSG—is now enjoying unprecedented success, which surely must sting the man from Bondy, the Paris banlieue. He’s now captain of the French national team, but that hasn’t stopped figures on the French far right—against whom he’s spoken out in the past—from attacking him.
That’s one bit Aidan McLaughlin may not have foreseen when he went to meet Mbappé at the Fairmont hotel in Washington this spring for an interview. The megastar was unflappable as always while defending his right to speak his mind, to not shut up and dribble, but his Vanity Fair Sports Issue cover story has nonetheless caused a bit of a kerfuffle over in France. His comments sparked debate across news programs and social media after far-right figures like Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella got involved.
Despite all the noise, he’ll soon have the chance to become the World Cup’s all-time leading goal scorer. Read on for more, plus full coverage of the blockbuster Musk-Altman trial, round two.
|
JACK HOLMES,
SENIOR EDITOR
|
With everything on the line this summer at the World Cup, VF’s Aidan McLaughlin checks in with France’s golden boy.
|
|
|
“Stop! Both of you!” Now in its third and final week of arguments, the head-to-head between the two tech titans has frequently been the very sci-fi trial Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had tried to avoid.
|
The Kennedy scion turned TikToker turned candidate for New York’s 12th congressional seat is drawing in Manhattanites with an interest in civics and social capital: “They were all staring at him like they wanted to be married to him.”
|
Rob Shuter is taking a relentless approach with his newsletter, Naughty but Nice—fact-checking be damned. “This is the Wild West,” he tells VF. “What I’m doing on Substack, nobody else is doing.”
|
|
|
From Demi Moore’s polarizing take on AI to a Fast and the Furious reunion on the red carpet, VF is on the ground bringing you up-to-the-minute coverage of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
|
|
|
This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book.
View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe
Copyright © Condé Nast 2026. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment