In this international break, Real Madrid has seen an exodus from Valdebebas and one of those who has set off for his national team again is Kylian Mbappé, who lost with France to Croatia in the first leg of the fixture played on Thursday.
A match in which the Frenchman experienced a much-discussed moment with his Real Madrid team-mate, Luka Modric. Mbappé was advancing into the box with Modric doing his best to stop him and steal the ball. At that moment the Frenchman went to the ground. Faced with the situation, the Croatian midfielder pounced on him to reproach him for having let himself fall to provoke the penalty.
Modric’s steal of the ball had been clean and he let him know it. The Croatian number 10 quickly approached the Frenchman and reproached him somewhat heatedly for having let himself fall. It was a gesture that initially took the Frenchman, still on the ground, by surprise. The midfielder then helped Kylian to get up, to the laughter of both of them, while the referee approached to prevent the situation, which was already under control and between friends, from getting out of hand.
Many Madrid fans had their eyes on the match and noticed something. On the Frenchman’s shirt his name was written without an accent, that is to say, on the France shirt, unlike on the Real Madrid shirt, it says Mbappe.
Why is Kylian Mbappé’s name spelled differently on the Real Madrid shirt than on the France shirt? It all has to do with a policy of the French Football Federation where the names of its players are taken as they were written in the passport and without the presence of accents.
With France and without the accent, he did not see a Mbappé who has already accumulated 21 goals this season with Real Madrid. 20 of them have been scored in LaLiga where he is in an intense fight for the pichichi with FC Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski.