N'Golo Kante set to captain France with Kylian Mbappe missing

The former Chelsea midfielder currently plays for Al-Ittihad.

According to a report from Le Parisien, N’Golo Kanté, who has been called up to the France squad for the current international break, is expected to captain the team when they play Israel on Thursday.

Les Bleus captain Kylian Mbappé has been infamously left out of the squad for the forthcoming UEFA Nations League matches against Italy and Israel. Head coach Didier Deschamps failed to appoint a permanent vice-captain after Antoine Griezmann unexpectedly announced his retirement from international competitions in October.

Aurélien Tchouaméni of Real Madrid acquired the armband during the most recent international break. He is not included in Deschamps’ team, though, as a slight ailment has prevented him from playing in the forthcoming games. According to Le Parisien, N’Golo Kanté is quite likely to wear the armband while Mbappe and Tchouameni are away.

When Kylian Mbappé started on the bench during a 2-0 victory over Belgium in early September, Kanté was named captain. At Euro 2024, Kanté also donned the armband for a brief period of time.

Although Mbappé’s lack of international duty may appear like a setback to his momentum, it actually gives the former Paris Saint-Germain attacker a chance to seek improvement in his performance in Madrid.

Real Madrid and coach Carlo Ancelotti are welcoming his presence over the break, which will free him from the constant barrage of the media and enable him to concentrate on getting back to his peak. It’s unknown, though, how the player feels about this surprising circumstance.

The fact that Mbappé is no longer his club’s leading scorer is another factor contributing to his current problems. For a player who has dominated the PSG scoring charts since joining the team in 2017, this is an unusual change in the Spanish capital.

After missing in his debut season against Edinson Cavani’s 40 goals, Mbappé had been PSG’s unchallenged offensive leader. He consistently took first place in Ligue 1 scoring charts, even outperforming Neymar and Cavani by a significant margin. Now we see him eight goals below the top performer (Robert Lewandowski – 14 goals) in LaLiga.

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