sport news Kylian Mbappe was quiet, so quiet it screamed back at you as PSG exited the ... trends now
At least he fronted up to the media for a few minutes, which is more than he had done in the previous 90 on the pitch. Ballon d'Or? Kylian Mbappe is the balloon headed for the door, and what a deflating exit this was, beaten 2-0 over two legs by Borussia Dortmund, the fifth best team in Germany.
Big players - the best, the very best - they turn up on nights like this, and not just to whisper a few words to the press. Subdued just about captures his performance, too. For all the noise inside Parc des Princes, Mbappe was quiet, so quiet it screamed back at you.
He was gagged, in part, by Mats Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck. But there was something about his own body language that seemed restrictive - there were early distress signals in the form of a pass straight to a yellow jersey - and he reserved his most expressive action for a roll of the eyes when asked by the press if he would be supporting Real Madrid on Wednesday evening, the club he will join this summer. With that, Mbappe left. It was as if he had never been there at all.
Kylian Mbappe cut a forlorn figure after PSG were dumped out of the Champions League
Mbappe was unable to inspire PSG past Borussia Dortmund as they lost 2-0 on aggregate
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi - not the diminished version of PSG - always showed. Through a human skill so superior or an animalistic force of nature, they carried their teams to victory. Between them, they won the Champions League nine times. Mbappe, at 25, remains on zero.
Maybe it will be that the move to Madrid brings a flurry of European crowns in the second half of his career. But what has the first half - seven seasons at PSG - amounted to? In actual numbers - six Ligue 1 titles plus three French Cup and two League Cup wins.
But to any observer beyond France, Mbappe only plays in the Champions League. What he achieves domestically feels like box ticking. The one box he had to populate on Tuesday was the penalty box. He put himself in there, at least in a literal
