Kylian Mbappe is overhyped and doesn’t belong in the same sentence as Thierry Henry, according to Patrice Evra.
The Manchester United legend has sought to pull Mbappe down a peg after an underwhelming start to life at Real Madrid.
Madrid signed Mbappe from PSG for free in the summer to make him the star of the show but he has lagged behind Vinicius Junior, recording 17 goal contributions to the Brazilian’s 23.
In fairness to Mbappe, a haul of 14 goals scored is nothing to be sniffed at, but such are the demands of Los Blancos and the Spanish and French media that he has been branded a disappointment, particuarly when Madrid handed him a £85.6million signing-on fee and a £12.8m-per-season contract.
Comparisons between two great French frwards are natural – both have won a World Cup, too – but Evra wishes that conversation would end.
‘When you start saying that [Mbappé] is the best player or one of the best, I’m thinking, he doesn’t even come close to Jean-Pierre Papin,’ Evra told RMC Sport shw Rothen s’enflamme.
Kylian Mbappe should not be compared to France legend Thierry Henry, says Patrice Evra
Henry is widely considered to be one of the greatest strikers of all time for his achievements with Arsenal, Barcelona, and France
Manchester United icon Evra says that Mbappe’s reputation has been overly inflated
‘Let’s never compare Mbappe to Thierry Henry. Let’s never compare him. You’ve created this product.
‘For me, [Mbappe] takes too much heat, but when you talk about the best players in the world… Guys, did you see Henry’s performances? You’re putting people on a pedestal who aren’t on a pedestal.’
However, Henry himself defended the 26-year-old on the same show.
The former Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal, and Barcelona striker, who scored 417 goals in his career compared to Mbappe’s 350, insisted the Madrid man is still learning.
‘When you look closely at the goals, you can’t say that his start in Madrid wasn’t good. But now, what he used to give us from the first to the last minute and in the whole game, people are asking questions,’ he said.
‘But playing nine is not the same job. For me, Kylian is a player who can play in all positions but at some point it has to be learned. You have to know a little about the job and learn to play number nine on the job at Real Madrid, it’s not easy.
‘It takes time to learn how to play with your back to goal. Especially when you don’t have it as a base. And I can say that because I didn’t have it as a base. But it can be learned. I hope he will evolve and he must have progressed.
‘If it were someone else, we would say that he scores goals. Now we are judging based on what he has done before.
‘It is completely normal, when you are not used to it, to find yourself in a certain situation where people can see your weaknesses, whereas before we never saw them.
‘We know very well that he is one of the best players in the world. And I repeat, but let’s be happy that he is French. Now, we have to know if I am being asked the question of the player or the human being. And that is super important because at some point you have to sort things out. Who knows what it is like to always be number one? Not many people.
‘Human beings, from time to time, yes, they can be affected and that’s completely normal. And that, for me, is completely normal. At one point, everyone thought he was a robot. He’s not a robot, he’s a human being who has emotions like everyone else. And from time to time, he’s going to get angry and throw up his arms.’
