Olivier Giroud regrets the proportions taken by his quarrel with Kylian Mbappé during the preparation of the France team before the Euro last summer and ensures that the incident was quickly closed.
Four months, one Euro and one League of Nations later, the little phrase pronounced by Olivier Giroud on "the balloons that do not arrive" continues to make waves.
In an interview with the Guardian, the Milan striker explained the context of his quarrel with Kylian Mbappé after the friendly match against Bulgaria (3-0), in June, during the preparation for the Euro. Despite his double scored that night, Giroud had been questioned about his relative discretion before that: “Discreet because sometimes we go shopping but the balls do not arrive…” An attack taken personally by Mbappé.
“It was such a small thing,” he said four months later.
He
(Mbappé)
was a little upset for a few days even though I explained to him that I was not pointing the finger at him.
I didn't mean to be hard on anyone.
I had just answered a question where a journalist told me after the match:
Oh you were very discreet but you scored two goals…
It's always as if they
(the media)
were trying to piss me off
(sic)
.
The media tried to inflate it and say that it ruined the atmosphere within the team.
But come on!
We had an adult conversation and it was no problem.
"
His supposed rivalry with Karim Benzema…
In the interview with RMC last week, Mbappé admitted to having been upset by this remark.
“It was for me, I was concerned, recognized the PSG striker.
Me, I was disappointed two days.
It's the truth.
I had rage at night.
It's true, I'm honest, I had rabies at night.
It was more the thing… you score two goals, I come to congratulate you and you do not say anything to me.
"
Olivier Giroud: “I've never had a problem with Karim, even though he's not my best friend, and we've always had a good time in the national team.
But people spoke of us as if we were enemies ”.
(@guardian) pic.twitter.com/Kp1LHx1Kwz
- BeFoot (@_BeFoot) December 15, 2018
In the Guardian, Giroud also deplores his supposed rivalry with Karim Benzema, invented from scratch according to him: “All my career in the national team, they have opposed me to him. You had the pro-Benzema and the pro-Giroud. I always said I had no problem with him and loved playing with him but it was a media thing to make it look like we were fighting. This has never been true. "
Giroud even goes so far as to say that the famous comparison of F1 and karting made by Benzema never upset him too much but rather amused. “It made me laugh,” said the AC Milan player. Obviously when you're chatting on social media live and asked who's better - Benzema or Giroud - and you know he's your fan, he had to say something like that. I thought it was quite funny. Afterwards, people on social media sent me so many pictures of him in a Formula 1 car and me in a go-kart with the World Cup, saying it was a little jealousy or something. But I said no such thing. I took it all with a smile. "
Not selected in the France group by Didier Deschamps, on the occasion of the Final Four of the League of Nations, Giroud told the Guardian that he would receive a medal for the key role of his contribution to this latest success, as well as N'Golo Kanté, his former partner at Chelsea.
“Apparently N'Golo Kanté and I can have Nations League medals because we were heavily involved in qualifying.
So it's a nice addition to my honor roll, isn't it?
»What did not seem obvious a priori, the FFF having explained that it had 40 medals and that it had distributed them all to the 23 players of the Final Four and to the 17 members of the staff.
Giroud scored three goals in the competition, including a double against Sweden (4-2).
