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11 Jun, 2021 14:49

‘He is an example’: French President Macron backs Kante for Ballon d'Or on visit to France squad ahead of Euro 2020

‘He is an example’: French President Macron backs Kante for Ballon d'Or on visit to France squad ahead  of Euro 2020

France President Emmanuel Macron, who was slapped by an angry member of the public this week, has visited France's Euro 2020 camp while wishing the World Cup champion squad the best and backing N'Golo Kante for the Ballon d'Or.

Les Bleus are currently preparing for their tournament opener against Group F rivals Germany in Munich.

Attempting to go one better than the last edition of the competition they won in 2000, yet lost in the final on home soil to another group opponent Portugal five years ago, Macron's pop-in was a morale booster aimed at motivating France to win two major trophies in a row considering their World Cup triumph in Russia.

As the man of the moment in European football following his Player of the Match masterclass in the Champions League final for Chelsea against Manchester City, Macron joined the informal campaign to see N'Golo Kante snatch this year's France Football Ballon d'Or gong from Lionel Messi.

Beaming that together Kante and Mbappe represent the "values of effort, togetherness and loyalty", Macron also had more specific words for the back-to-back Premier League king.  

"N'Golo Kante is a great player, like Kylian Mbappe, and he is an example," he told RMC Sport.

"He is an example for the youth of the country."

"When we see again the season Kante has had with his club, I hope [he gets] the Ballon d'Or too and I'm sure [of] what he will do in these Euros."

"He and Kylian are good people as well, with values of effort and togetherness. They are loyal to the clubs where they come from. And I think it is very important for the country because sport is always bigger than just sport," Macron finished on this, while jokingly asking Kante if he "still had three lungs".

"You have nothing to prove, you are very great players," Macron said in a rallying call. "But do not give up… and [fight] until the last minute." 

Yet despite his praise for the forward, there is stress and tension in the camp pertaining to PSG superstar Mbappe, which is derived from criticism leveled at him by Kante's Stamford Bridge teammate Olivier Giroud.

"Sometimes you make the runs and ball is not arriving," Giroud recently told the media.

"Perhaps we could have found each other better, there it is," he added. 

In training yesterday, Giroud - who upstaged positional rival and blackmail bad boy Karim Benzema by bagging a brace against Bulgaria - is reported to have said sorry to Mbappe and confessed that his comments "ran away with him".

Giving him the cold shoulder, however, RMC claim that Mbappe - who dramatically wanted to call his own press conference on the matter - remained "moody" despite the veteran trying to hug him. 

"If you received the ball after each time you called for it, it is always the same," stressed Deschamps attempting to quell the row.

"The attacker says: 'I am making runs, but it's on the midfield.' [And then] the midfielders will say that it is on the attackers." 

"Sometimes, the pass isn't forthcoming, sometimes it is down to the movement. But this is not a stigmatization of Kylian or whoever," he insisted.

The trip to rally Deschamps troops will have undoubtedly been the highlight of a week to forget for Macron.

On Tuesday, in the south-eastern town of Tain-L'Hermitage, he was slapped by Damien Tarel who shouted an obscure medieval battle cry of "Montjoie and Saint-Denis! Down with Macronism" after running to a metal barrier that a crowd waited behind.

On Friday, Tarel, who has been found to support far-right politics, was hit with a four-month prison sentence for the widely-condemned act. 

"When I saw his friendly, lying look, which sought me out as a voter, I was filled with disgust," Tarel was reported as telling the court, while also claiming he had acted instinctively.

Emphasizing that "ultra-violent people" shouldn't be allowed to run amok and hijack the political spectrum, Macron gave his thoughts at a press conference ahead of Euro 2020 on Thursday.

"There have been moments of very high tension and violence in our country which I've had to experience as president during the gilets jaunes crisis," he said.

"But society is in a different place today."

Furthermore, Macron will not be taking legal action against Tarel and preferred to leave it to the judicial system to handle the offender. 

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