Kylian Mbappé has donned more masks than he has netted goals at the European Championship. The French captain is grappling with peripheral vision issues while wearing masks designed to shield his broken nose since the team’s first match at Euro 2024.
On Monday, he sported his third different mask in the 1-0 victory over Belgium in the round of 16, missing the target in five attempts. To date, he has scored only one goal in the tournament.
Coach Didier Deschamps noted, “You’ve got the sweat aspect, and we know sweat can get in his eyes. He’s getting used to it, but it can affect his vision. Everything in front of him is fine, but there’s a delay with his peripheral vision.”
Mbappé, who broke his nose in an aerial collision with Austria’s Kevin Danso, has described the experience of wearing the mask as “an absolute horror.” His only goal so far was a penalty against Poland. “I saw people, but I felt like it wasn’t me playing,” he said after that game.
Initially, Mbappé wore a custom-made mask in the colors of the French flag. However, UEFA rules mandate that protective equipment be a single color, so he switched to an all-black mask for the game against Poland. For the knockout match against Belgium, he wore yet another mask, which was more custom-fitted to his face, had better ventilation, and was held on by a single strap instead of two.
Despite these changes, Mbappé’s accuracy was still off, with many of his shots missing the target. This could pose a problem for Real Madrid if Mbappé still needs to wear a mask at the start of next season, following his recent transfer to the Spanish club.
Before that, Mbappé and France have a quarterfinal match against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal on Friday. This is the first time World Cup winner Mbappé has reached the quarterfinals of the Euros, after France was knocked out in the last 16 in 2021 by Switzerland in a penalty shootout.
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