France coach Didier Deschamps said Monday that a report claiming captain Kylian Mbappe was being investigated for rape in Sweden “is not a good thing for the national team.”
France beat Belgium 2-1
“Everyone is free to write what they want but there is a negative atmosphere” around the French team, Deschamps told reporters following the 2-1 win in Belgium in the UEFA Nations League. Randal Kolo Muani of Paris Saint-Germain scored twice as France won in the absence of Kylian Mbappe on Monday.
His comments came in response to questions about Mbappe, the France skipper who was allowed to sit out the team’s games this month in order to work on his fitness.
Didier Deschamps
That was already a source of controversy in the build-up to last Thursday’s win against Israel, before a newspaper in Sweden on Monday claimed that the Real Madrid striker was being investigated for rape following a visit to Stockholm.
After Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet claimed that an alleged rape had been reported to police, but did not say who was the accused, another publication, Expressen, said that 25-year-old Mbappe was the suspect. The player though has denounced the report as “fake news.”
Also Read: Mbappe-PSG salary row faces hearing as France captain cited in `rape` report
“Be careful when you pick things up,” Deschamps warned. “You had better take a bit of a step back before publishing anything and everything, but these things happen so often,” he said, appearing to cast doubt on the report. “There are things that are not difficult to verify, but if you credit any old thing… In any case I am not going to talk to him about it. He is big enough to know how to communicate.”
‘Reasonably suspected’
Expressen said Mbappe was “reasonably suspected” of rape and sexual assault, the lower of two grades of suspicion in the Swedish legal system.
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