On July 27th, Beijing time, French national team captain Kylian Mbappé expressed his gratitude to fans, teammates, and coaching staff in an open letter. Mbappé summarized the World Cup journey, admitting his deep regret at not bringing home the championship, but also expressing pride in the team's efforts and hard work, and stating that the journey will continue.
Full text of open letter from French national team captain Kylian Mbappé
Thank you everyone.
A month of passion. A month of pushing limits. A month of pride in wearing the French jersey. More importantly, it was that passion—whether we were running on the field, or you were watching on screen or in the stands, everyone felt the same fervor. This is everything we went through together, an incredible story.
We failed to bring home the team championship trophy. It hurts, and it will continue to ache for a while, and I won't hide that from you. While I'm proud to be the top scorer, everything would have been even better with that championship trophy. Perhaps we owe you a more perfect ending. However, we can't always choose how the story ends, but we can choose to give our all, and we gave it our all. We are incredibly proud of that.
Thank you to my teammates. Without their hard work, running, and passing, and without the team spirit that carried us from the first game to the last, I could never have scored so many goals. This honor belongs to the whole team, just as it belongs to me.
When I was a child, my dream was to participate in at least one World Cup. Now I have participated in three World Cups and won one of them, and this year, I was even more fortunate to wear the captain's armband and compete on the World Cup stage. I will never forget it.
People stayed up all night, even through the night due to time differences, just to watch our game on the other side of the world. People gathered at home, in bars, with family or friends, whether in France or other parts of the world.
Many more people came to our side, draped in national flags and standing in the stands. Children's eyes sparkled; people from different backgrounds and generations came together to share this pure joy. This is the power of this sport.
And you have never let us down, not even in the most difficult times, not even when we didn’t perform well enough. This story wasn’t written by just the eleven people on the field, but by millions of hands, united by everyone’s equally fervent passion.
I've already said what I needed to say to Didier (Deschamps), and he understands. I thank him, and I thank the entire coaching staff and team: the physiotherapist, the chef, the strength and conditioning coach, the driver… those unsung heroes who are indispensable; without them, none of this would have been possible. I also thank our friends in the United States who hosted and cared for us during this World Cup.
Ultimately, football is still a game. A game we take incredibly seriously, one we would even dedicate our lives to mastering. But it is, after all, just a game. Its rules are simple and pure, unchanged since we first started playing: a football, a goal, and a heart yearning to score. It is precisely this shared passion that binds us all together.
This World Cup has come to an end, but the story continues. There will be many more matches, many more summer nights and winter nights to come, and we will still gather together because of this game, our desire undiminished. Our story of fighting side-by-side is far from over.
Thank you for everything you've done.
Kylian Mbappé
