Kylian Mbappe breaks silence after 2026 World Cup exit – “It hurts and will continue to hurt” | OneFootball

Real Madrid did have one 2026 World Cup winner, although many would have expected Kylian Mbappe to emerge victorious rather than Marc Cucurella. However, it was a disappointing tournament for France, as they ended up 4th after losing to eventual champions Spain and then England in the third-place play-off.

Mbappe, as well as club teammates Ibrahima Konate and Aurelien Tchouameni, would have hoped to win France their third World Cup. In the end, it was not to be, and that meant a number of Les Bleus players came in for significant criticism.

Despite becoming the first player in history to win back-to-back World Cup Golden Boots, Mbappe was one to be targeted. As per Diario AS, he’s now broken his silence on Les Bleus’ failed attempt in a statement posted to Instagram, in which he paid tribute to the supporters that have been on his and France’s side.

“THANK YOU. A month of emotion. Of self-improvement. Of pride in wearing the colours of France. Of passion, above all, the same passion that animates us on the pitch and that encourages you, in front of the screen as well as in the stands. That is what we have lived together, an incredible story. We do not bring a collective trophy. It hurts and will continue to hurt for a while, I’m not going to lie to you about that.

“The title of top scorer, I accept it with pride, but it would have been much better with the cup as well. Maybe we owed you a nicer ending. But we don’t always choose the end of the story, we choose what we put inside, and we have given it our all. Of that, we are proud. Thank you to my colleagues. Without his work, his runs, his passes, without that team spirit that has taken us from the first to the last game, I would never have been able to score so much. This title is as much the collective’s as it is mine. As a child, he dreamed of playing in a World Cup, at least one. I’ve played three, I’ve won one and, this year, I’ve been proud to play it with the captain’s armband. I will never forget it.

“You’ve stayed up late, sometimes into the middle of the night depending on time zones, to watch us play on the other side of the world, you’ve gathered at home, in bars, with family or friends, all over France and beyond. Others were as close as possible to us, in the stadiums, with the flag on their shoulders. Children with bright eyes, men and women of all origins and all generations, gathered around the same pleasure, that of sharing. That is the strength of this sport. And you have never abandoned us, not even in the hardest moments, not even when we deserved it less. We have written this history with millions of hands, not just eleven on the field, driven by the same passion.

“To Didier, I have already told him what he had to say, he knows. Thanks to him, to his entire team as well, physiotherapists, cooks, trainers, drivers, all those who no one ever sees and without whom none of this would be possible. And to those who have welcomed us in the United States throughout this competition. Football, at its core, is still a game. A game that we take very seriously, that we worked all our lives to try to master, but a game at the end of the day, with its simple rules that have not changed since we started playing it: ball, goal, desire to score. That is why it unites us all with the same passion.

“This World Cup ends, but the story continues. There will be other matches, other summer or winter nights in which we will all meet in front of that same game, with the same desire intact. We are not done playing together. Thank you for everything.”

Real Madrid return beckons for Mbappe

Mbappe will now continue his time off before returning to Real Madrid soon for the start of the 2026-27 season. He will hope for better from a collective standpoint, as he has yet to win a major trophy at club or international level since moving to the Bernabeu two years ago.