The beginning of the end? Mbappé substituted at half-time, watched the rest of the game from the stands with his family instead of his teammates, PSG coach speaks out

In recent weeks, Kylian Mbappé is again a bit more watched than ever. The reason is simple. He was due to announce to PSG that he will leave the team after the season. The club’s reaction? For three games in a row, the French gem hasn’t played a full game. The last one against Monaco in particular was very strange for several reasons.

In mid-February, a key piece of information went around the football world. Kylian Mbappé was to announce to PSG management that he would leave the club after the season. But it’s not official yet. After all, even coach Luis Enrique commented on the whole thing afterwards as mere speculation, not wanting to comment until he informed the club about anything.

The management of the Parisian club has not yet officially commented on anything. But one thing has changed. The French footballer hasn’t played a full game since. Just two days after the information went around the media, the PSG jewel jumped into the match against Nantes only as a joker for the last 29 minutes.

Kylian Mbappé started the next game in the starting line-up, but he played only 64 minutes and did not make any impact on the statistics against Rennes. On Friday night, PSG faced Monaco and the 25-year-old striker was substituted at half-time with the score 0:0.

That you withdraw your best player at half-time is in itself very atypical, whatever the situation around him. But that wasn’t the only thing that was peculiar.

Kylian Mbappé was not on the bench with his teammates

Unless a player is seriously injured in some way that he has to go to the hospital, it is customary that after being substituted, he spends the rest of the game with his teammates on the substitutes’ bench or somewhere nearby. However, this was not the case.

Kylian Mbappé changed into civilian clothes after the substitution and instead of watching the rest of the game against the club that brought him up with his teammates, he headed to the stands with his family. He greeted the Monaco fans on his way to the stands.

Naturally, journalists questioned coach Luis Enrique about the whole situation. His reaction? “Is this a punishment for Mbappé? I have only one answer, which I have already given you. Sooner or later we have to learn to play without him. That’s my philosophy, that’s how I think about what’s best for the team. I’m not going to argue. It’s my decision,” Goal quotes him as saying.

Source: Ligue 1, Goal, Twitter, Transfermarkt