French Soccer Star Kylian Mbappé Denies Rape Report

“He is completely serene, but he is also astonished to see this media circus,” Canu-Bernard said Tuesday evening. “He doesn’t see anything at all that could be held against him.”

Mbappé himself had earlier posted on X that the matter was “fake news” and hinted that any suggestion of inappropriate behavior could be a dirty trick tied to a continuing contract dispute with his former club Paris Saint-Germain. Representatives for Mbappé, who now plays for Real Madrid, had been due to appear before a magistrate this week over a matter of 55 million euros, equivalent to $59.8 million, in salary and bonuses, which he believes PSG still owes him.

A spokesman for Paris Saint-Germain declined to comment.

Mbappé hasn’t been charged with any crime.

Under normal circumstances, Mbappé wouldn’t have even been in Sweden last weekend, because the French national team was in action in matches against Israel and Belgium. But Mbappé had asked for time off from national-team duty, citing a thigh injury, and went on a trip to Stockholm instead.

“It’s so predictable,” Mbappé posted in a sarcastic tweet after the report emerged, drawing a connection to his dispute with PSG. “And by coincidence [it comes out] the night before the hearing.”

Mbappé has long been the golden boy of French soccer, ever since the kid from the Parisian suburbs emerged as a teenage sensation at AS Monaco. He made his professional debut at just 16 and then moved to PSG in 2017, before his performances for France at the 2018 World Cup launched him to global superstardom. Between his electric speed and his lethal finishing, Mbappé positioned himself as the kind of generational game-changer who could succeed Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. With his business affairs overseen by his mother, he signed major sponsorship deals with Nike and Dior.

That is why when Mbappé first began considering an exit from PSG, it practically became a matter of state. He received phone calls from former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and current President Emmanuel Macron urging him to remain at the club—which is exactly what Mbappé did until last summer when he joined Real Madrid.

But once the long-expected divorce between Mbappé and his hometown club finally came, the terms were less than friendly. Last month, PSG defied a French soccer league order to pay the 55 million euros, arguing that Mbappé had waived it on his way out of Paris.

Appeared in the October 17, 2024, print edition as 'French Soccer Star Mbappé Denies Report of Rape Case'.