The sniper's position.
In recent weeks, Leonardo, the director of Paris Saint-Germain, has got into the habit of embellishing his media outings with a few well-felt spikes towards French football and its leaders.
The most recent: a fierce charge against the French Football Federation which did not inform the club in the capital of the positive case of Kylian Mbappé in Covid-19 before publishing its press release Monday evening.
“It is unacceptable to learn from the press that we have a player, our player, positive.
No one from the Federation called PSG.
No one contacted us.
It is disrespectful never to communicate with the club when the player returns home.
"
READ ALSO>
Mbappé positive for Covid-19: Deschamps responds to Leonardo
This outing, on RMC Sport, was not scheduled and was made in reaction to the announcement of the positivity of Mbappé to the coronavirus.
On the other hand, the day before on Canal +, Leonardo had prepared his speech on the heresy of the calendar imagined by the Football League and more broadly the decision-makers of French football.
Disappointed with the lack of support
“The basic problem is to organize the first day of the championship on the weekend of the final of the Champions League.
For me, it's incomprehensible, tackled Leonardo.
Are the decisions political or sporting?
All other European Championships start on September 13th or 18th.
We have been doing four months without a single official match.
"
A little earlier in the same intervention, the Brazilian leader had also questioned the lack of general enthusiasm in society to support PSG in their quest for the Champions League.
" I do not really understand.
Maybe it's a cultural issue.
During the competition there was no emotion, he lamented.
It's a special year (
Editor's note: because of the health crisis
), but the substance, the tone, I don't quite understand.
"
This is not the first time that the sports director has castigated French football and its clubs.
In 2012, at the time of his first stint at PSG, he denounced a failing culture of winning and the training methods of the championship teams during the “UCPF Meetings”.
“Just making toros and shooting on goal, that's not possible.
[…] If France loses a place in the UEFA index, it is because it does not work, ”explained Leonardo, eager to advance the debate on the preparation of players.
Not in phase with the decision to stop the championship
What is he looking for this time?
If he does not question the management of other clubs, he clearly places himself as a defender of PSG.
The latter would not benefit enough from protection in his European quest - he also cited Lyon - from the institutions that govern football.
True to himself, Leonardo also wants to shake the coconut palm of French football in order to advance Ligue 1. The former Brazilian international does not understand that France, world champion, provider of talent, has for example only two qualified clubs directly for the Champions League.
PSG Express
The essential newsletter for Parisian supporters
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
Recruited in June 2019 to embody the authority within the champions of France, Leonardo is also there to fluidify relations with the authorities of French football.
He had also lunched with the president of the FFF, Noël Le Graët, a few days after his appointment on June 14, 2019. Contacted Tuesday, the latter did not wish to react.
But by attacking the FFF directly, Leonardo seems to indicate that he was not really in phase with the decision to stop the championships validated by Noël Le Graët on April 28.
No more than with the recovery schedule established by the LFP.
The Parisian sports director, whose club has just reached the final of the Champions League, continues to act as agitators of ideas for what he considers to be the good of French football.
Even if it means pointing at its leaders.
