Thierry Henry exclusive: Kylian Mbappe gave caviar to people all the time - now he's getting destroyed

Thierry Henry has leapt to the defence of Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe, insisting his fellow Frenchman has been unfairly criticised in his career due to the high standards expected of him. Mbappe rose to stardom with AS Monaco before securing a nine-figure move to Paris Saint-Germain and winning the World Cup with France as a key starter while still a teenager. To date, Mbappe has scored 365 times in 460 club appearances, while he has also grabbed 55 goals in 94 caps for France, second to only Olivier Giroud in Les Bleus' all-time leading scorers list. Despite these many accolades, Mbappe has never won the Champions League as a player, and despite being tipped to take home many Ballon d'Or awards in an era after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's duopoly, he has yet to claim a Golden Ball for himself.

Henry defends Mbappe's career

Speaking exclusively to GOAL, in association with Lay's, Henry claimed Mbappe has been judged unfairly for most of his career because of the high standards people set him when he was young.

Henry said: "For me, I'm not even thinking about the Ballon d'Or, that comes with what you do. I'm just thinking, this is a guy that started with… he's only played two World Cups and went to two finals. He scored in two, he won one, lost one. Not a lot of people can say that. Not a lot of people have done that.

"But unfortunately for Kylian, you find yourself in a situation when you give caviar to people all the time, and just one day out of the year that you don't, boy you are you going to get murdered. It's crazy, but that's how it is. That's a level of where he is.

"Sometimes he gets judged on what he is not doing or what he didn't do yet. And people kind of brush [over] what he has done, which I'm like, 'OK, I get it, I'm not saying he gets a pass, but can we be fair sometimes?' There's so much expectation on this guy since he's 16, and he has almost always delivered. With the way he's been behaving, and look at the stats, if you look at the trophies, if you look at the numbers, they ain't bad.

"But, like I said, one day you don't bring the caviar for your host, they will complain. That's just how it is, and the player that he is, I think in a way, he has to just embrace that. That tells you that you are an outstanding player, because if not, they wouldn't be talking about you. But all I know is, this guy played two World Cups only, and went to two finals. I mean, if he goes to a third one, it's not even the history of France here, you're talking about the history of the World Cup."

Mbappe's World Cup hopes with France

Mbappe has the chance to level Cafu's record of playing in three World Cup finals, but the France team he's playing with now is very different to the one he won the tournament with in 2018. Henry believes Les Bleus' strength in depth will help them, though he stopped short of naming who he would pick as his starters.

"Well, that's going to have to be the job of Didier Deschamps, in all fairness!" he replied when asked who he would like to see play. "We are fortunate in France to have a lot of choices, but not only up front. You think in midfield, you think at the back, goalkeepers, whatever it is, we've been blessed in that way.

"I don't know how we're going to play. People are going to talk about Mbappe. You have a guy like [Hugo] Ekitike right now that is putting his name on the map. Six months ago, no one would have said that Ekitike might go or will go to the World Cup. That's up to Deschamps. And now people are like, 'Oh my God, France' again. So, like I said, I don't like so much to go into details of who should go, should not go, or what's going to happen.

"I know we do have [options], you can't hide behind that. We do have choices. We have a good squad, but the squad can only be some amount of players. You're going to have to leave some good players behind. That's the quality of France. All I want, I'll be honest with you, is for us to perform and being able to play another final and make sure that we can win it. But that's a hope, that's a wish. I want that for my ex-teammates and for my country. That's for sure."

Could England end 60 years of hurt?

Henry believes that France face stiff competition if they are to become world champions for a third time, with Thomas Tuchel's England among the contenders to go all the way in North America. Mbappe's France knocked out the Three Lions at the quarter-final stage on their way to the 2022 final.

"Look, you can never be too confident. The only thing that gives you some type of positivity is that we went to the last two finals. And if you make it go further, the last seven World Cups, we went to four finals," Henry continued. "So, yeah, but how can you not think about England now? How can you not think about people who always put Germany on the side, or think that Brazil might make a comeback, you know? I mean, Italy needs to qualify still, but how can you not think that? Portugal or Argentina as the world champions, you know? So, I'm French, I always going to hope that we can have a good World Cup, but it's going to be tough. It's always tough. It's very difficult to tell.

"Since Tuchel has taken the team, it seems like it's been a different Harry Kane than we saw at the Euros. So maybe he had a lot of games in his legs at the Euros. I've been there, I always say to people you don't prepare for tournaments, you play them. Because some of those guys sometimes arrive on their knees because of the long season that they played.

"But look, you have to give that team, and also [Gareth] Southgate, a lot of credit for what he did build, because it's not the coach anymore. We all know that it's Tuchel, and I'm a big fan of Tuchel, but I'm just saying that, two finals, a semi-final before, quarter-final against France. You're there or there abouts, so now you need to find a way to cross that line, which is a line, as you know, in England, that people have been waiting for a lot of players and teams to cross that line since 1966. It's not an easy one to cross. If you look at the history of teams that didn't win it, of great players that didn't win it, it just doesn't happen like that. You look at the teams that have won it, you don't have a lot of teams that have won it. You look at the names, more often than not, they're the same names. Spain came recently to put their name there, but if you cut the names of the team that wins it, you often go back almost to the same one, so you know it's not an easy one.

"I live in London, I live in England. I was with Bukayo [Saka] the other day, and I have to say, I wish him all the best, obviously not against France because that goes without saying, that's the norm obviously. But I'm just thinking that team is very close to doing it.

"But there's Portugal and a lot of teams, also. If you understand what I mean. Sometimes being there, having the World Cup and doing it, you need that tiny bit of luck. You need everyone to arrive fit. You need to not lose players along the way. You need to have some time, a guy that's going to arrive in front of you and miss a sitter. There's so many things that we can talk about that needs to come together for you to win it. So, like I said, that's all I can wish to some of the guys, because it would be brilliant for you guys, but I'm thinking the same thing for my country, but I do think that they have the capacity to win it. Obviously, they are amongst the favourites for a reason, and if you look at the record of England recently in tournaments, they are there or there abouts. Now it's about crossing the line."