"Not my role" - Mbappe rejects talk of Zidane as Deschamps' successor

At the beginning of 2025, Didier Deschamps announced that he would leave the French national team at the end of the 2026 World Cup. Something that even Mbappe himself did not know: “He did not tell me anything. It's a personal decision, it's up to him. When I make decisions like that, I don't like to take people into my confidence, so I'm grateful that they don't either.”

The possibility of Zidane's arrival: “I don't know who will succeed him. I know who you want me to talk about, but I won't talk about him because that's not my role. There is a president of the Federation, and he is the one who is going to make that decision. Everyone is talking about Zidane, so we're not going to pretend we live in a cave and don't know what's going on, but it's not for me to talk about it.”

“It's Zinedine Zidane! But as I said, it's Philippe Diallo (Federation president) who will decide. We will see what criteria he uses and what decisions he takes,” he added.

On his captaincy: “I'm the only one who gets asked that question. I've been given the armband, I take it and I try to assume it as best I can. But I don't understand why, when I've been in the French national team for eight years and the captaincy has never been a problem, it has become a problem. When Lloris wasn't here, nobody talked about second captains. But today even that is a subject of debate. So people may think I'm stupid, but frankly, I don't get it. I would like someone smarter than me to explain it to me. Sometimes I come up with ideas, but those kinds of thoughts are best kept to yourself.”