Real Madrid's Rashford! Mbappe skips 'mini pre-season' for Stockholm nightclub

Tom Weber

• Updated: 11 Oct 2024 11:27 BST
• 3 min read

Kylian Mbappe was spotted in Stockholm on Thursday, fuelling the scandal that has bubbling in his native France for several days.

The Real Madrid star had been dealing with an injury that he suffered against Deportivo Alaves last month, which led to France coach Didier Deschamps omitting him from his squad for the current international break.

This decision caused outrage among Les Bleus' hardcore supporters given that Mbappe is the team's captain and, even more so, because Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti deemed him fit enough to start and play more than 70 minutes against Villarreal at the weekend.

His omission from the France squad was supposed to give Mbappe time to heal properly and there have been reports that the 25-year-old wanted to use his break productively.

Feeling that he has not yet been quite at his best for Los Blancos, Mbappe reportedly saw this pause in play as an opportunity to have a 'mini pre-season' to get fully fit and firing again. However, his latest actions will have only added fuel to the already burning fire.

Mbappe jets off to Sweden

On Thursday, while France were playing Israel, the Les Bleus captain arrived in Stockholm for a night out. As relayed by Sportbladet, Mbappe was spotted in the Swedish capital visiting a restaurant and then a nightclub.

After having dinner at the 'Chez Jolie', Mbappe and his entourage headed to the nightclub 'V' where they had a private room booked, causing surprise in the local media because "such big sports stars [being] in Sweden in non-sporting contexts is not very common."

While it is perhaps not quite an eyebrow-raising escapade like Man Utd star Marcus Rashford's tequila-fuelled bender in Belfast earlier this year, it won't help Mbappe's case given that his absence from the France squad was already controversial, to say the least.

Moreover, flying across Europe when you were supposed to have your 'mini pre-season' to help you get back to your best likely also won't have gone down well with Real Madrid even if there have been suggestions that they sanctioned his trip.