French football sensation, Kylian Mbappe Lotin has rubbished claims he was denied the chance to represent Cameroon.
Speaking via a TV show on BeinSport earlier this year, the 24-year-old World Cup winner who opted to represent France over his father’s Cameroon or his mother’s Algeria opened up on reports that he didn’t represent Cameroon because his father Wilfred Mbappe was asked to pay money.
Quizzed on the issue by BeinSport’s Alexandre Ruiz over his decision to play for France despite his African origin, Mbappe was emphatic in his response.
“Yes, I heard about this trending on social media before, it was a surprise,” Mbappe said.
“From my first professional game at Monaco, I don’t think the other federations had enough time to make contacts with me or my family.”
“Not that of Algeria, not that of Cameroon. I got into the France national team so fast,” he added.
“What the source of this social media information?” Mbappe posed with a smile, adding; “It is unfortunate when people with bad intentions attempts tarnish our image.”
“Footballers are models for kids out there, so we don’t speak carelessly. Sometimes people without the mandate to speak for us generate and spread all sorts of information without ever having a discussion with us.”
“Concerning this issue, I want to categorically state that; I have never made contact for international football with Cameroon or Algeria,” Mbappe concluded.
Mbappe came through the famous Clairfontaine Academy in France, where he was a student of this Academy till the age of 14 in 2013.
He left for AS Monaco and spent a year continuing his development at club level earning two France U17 caps in the process.
In December 2015, Mbappe made his debut for Monaco in a league game against Caen aged 16 years and 347 days.
In 2016, he joined the French U19 team and was a boy who had everything going for him as he scored seven goals in 11 appearances, earning his first cap for France against Luxembourg in 2017.
Meaning the only period Mbappe’s parents could approach Cameroon Football authorities was in 2014 when the player was 15.
Logic and the laws of Cameroon have it that, at 15, Mbappe wasn’t eligible to play for the U17s because of the presidential decree guiding selection of players for that category.
In fact, in that year, the Cameroon U17 team wasn’t involved in any international competition that could market a child from Clairfontaine.
The only option is Mbappe’s parents could have approached Cameroon for the 2014World cup in Brazil but this is not possible as the boy was just 15 and already a regular for the French U17.
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