“No, Kylian Mbappe is not a leader for me because he’s too selfish in his thoughts, in the way he thinks,” Frank Leboeuf said plainly in an interview with SportsBoom on behalf of Canada Sports Betting, putting a former World Cup winner’s name at the center of a leadership debate as France moves toward the 2026 tournament.
Leboeuf, who lifted the World Cup with France as a member of the 1998 squad, did not deny Mbappe’s talent — he called him “a superstar” — but he insisted that excellence on the scoresheet does not equal the profile of the kind of teammate or captain he values. “Mbappé is a superstar, but he’s not the best teammate in the world; that’s my problem,” he said, and he added that Mbappe’s way of thinking about football “doesn’t align with my values of the game.”
The contrast in Leboeuf’s remarks gains weight because of what Mbappe already represents for France. The 27-year-old won a World Cup as a 19-year-old and has been the most visible face of the national side ever since. France, a favorite for the 2026 World Cup and seeking its first title since 2018, is widely expected to lean on Mbappe’s goals and moments of individual brilliance — which is precisely what makes Leboeuf’s assertion consequential now.
Leboeuf framed his assessment with personal qualifiers. He said he met Mbappe only once, when the forward had just joined Paris Saint-Germain, but still offered decisive judgments about character and sacrifice. He singled out other players as examples of the leadership he admires: “That’s why I like people like William Saliba and N’Golo Kante, players like that who are ready to sacrifice for the team,” Leboeuf said, placing Saliba and Kante in the kind of collective mold he felt Mbappe does not fit.
The former defender did not write off the current France squad. He argued that the present team is “offensively better than the 1998 squad,” and he cautioned against easy comparisons between eras: “It’s hard to compare generations. Football is different, refereeing is different,” he added. He also referenced Antoine Griezmann as “a real leader in the way he was playing and thinking about football,” and pointed to Ousmane Dembélé’s comments about tracking back as reflecting the realities of the modern game.
The friction in Leboeuf’s portrait is apparent. France’s hopes for 2026 hinge on a blend of individual brilliance and collective cohesion, and Mbappe is the single player most likely to tilt matches on his own. Yet Leboeuf’s critique — that Mbappe’s thinking is too self-centered and that he is not the prototypical teammate — draws a hard line between on-field influence and off-field leadership. It also raises the question of whether the national team’s internal view of leadership matches Leboeuf’s outsider assessment; Leboeuf’s interview does not answer whether Mbappe’s teammates or coach share his diagnosis.
Leboeuf’s comments add a veteran voice to an ongoing conversation about who will carry France through the next World Cup: the high-scoring star or the quieter, sacrificial types he praised. They also sharpen what will be watched when the tournament arrives. If Mbappe produces decisive performances and visibly galvanizes the group, Leboeuf’s critique will fade into the landscape of punditry; if France underperforms, the former 1998 winner’s labeling of Mbappe as “not a leader” will look less like opinion and more like prediction.
The immediate consequence is simple and unavoidable: the 2026 World Cup will be the test. France’s results in North America — and the way Mbappe is perceived inside the dressing room and across the pitch — will determine whether Leboeuf’s judgment was an outlier or an early flag about the Mbappe team’s capacity to win as a unit.
