“I know what happens when Kylian Mbappé leaves PSG: the club wins the Champions League! (And maybe even a second time soon.)” Bardella wrote on X.
“He left PSG to join Real Madrid, saying it was to win the Champions League. In the meantime, PSG won it,” Le Pen said in an interview with French radio RTL on Wednesday.
Le Pen and Bardella’s party has long had a contentious relationship with the country’s popular national football team.
Far-right leaders have provoked consternation in the past by criticizing the racial makeup of the team, insinuating they are less French. In 1996, National Rally founder Jean-Marie Le Pen said that “it’s artificial to bring in players from abroad and call them the French national team.”
Mbappé’s current club team, Spanish giant Real Madrid, dominated the Champions League for most of the past decade but has suffered through two uninspired seasons since the Frenchman’s arrival.
The pressure is once again on the 27-year-old star as he captains the French team in this summer’s FIFA World Cup, hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S., as Les Bleus are considered favorites. In his interview with Vanity Fair ahead of the tournament, Mbappé defended his previous comments urging people to “vote against extremists that want to divide the country” ahead of snap elections in 2024.