HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — He has a broken nose that requires him to wear a vision-limiting face mask. He is managing fitness issues stemming from the end of the club season. He has scored only one goal — from the penalty spot.
The European Championship is hardly going to plan for Kylian Mbappé and he knows it.
“These are the vagaries of the footballer,” the France captain said after his latest below-par par performance at Euro 2024.
He doesn't really care, though, as long as he is lifting the Henri Delaunay Cup in Berlin on July 14.
Mbappé was so fatigued, so knocked out of his stride after a couple of bashes to his protective mask, that he asked to come off at halftime of extra time against Portugal in the quarterfinals in Hamburg on Friday.
It meant giving up a likely penalty in the impending shootout — which France won 5-3 because of Joao Felix's miss — but Mbappé simply couldn't continue.
France coach Didier Deschamps confirmed his captain asked to be replaced, for the good of the team.
“He is always very honest with me and the team. When he feels he doesn't have the capacity to accelerate then we can't risk it, even a player like Kylian,” Deschamps said.
“With all that has happened to him — the issues he has had, the trauma with his nose — he is hanging in there. He is not in his top form. He felt very tired indeed.”
Mbappé accepted before the Portugal game that he wasn't in prime shape and needed a “good pre-season to be at 100%.” That will come at Real Madrid, which he has joined after running down his contract at Paris Saint-Germain.
Getting his nose broken in France's opening group game at Euro 2024 threw him off kilter, too, restricting a part of his game because of his lack of peripheral vision.
His best performances so far might have come in France's news conferences, where he has been vocal in urging French people to vote in the snap elections while warning about the dangers of the far right getting into power.
On the field, Mbappé is part of a France team that heads into a semifinal match against Spain on Tuesday having scored three goals this tournament — two own-goals and his penalty against Austria. No France player has scored a goal from open play yet.
Like Greece in 2004, France is looking to reach the final pretty much entirely based on its mean defense and team structure. Except the talent in this France squad far outweighs what was at Greece's disposal 20 years ago.
“In the locker room, we weren’t thinking that we still hadn’t scored a goal in the game,” said Mbappé, who netted a hat trick in the 2022 World Cup final. “But yes, we will look into the question (of France's lack of efficiency in attack) while maintaining this defensive solidity.
"I've only scored one goal"," he added, “but we’re in the semifinals and I’m very happy.”
Mbappé didn't much like watching the penalty shootout from afar, either.
“It’s worse than shooting,” he said, laughing.
AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024
Kylian Mbappe of France controls the ball during a quarter final match between Portugal and France at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
Kylian Mbappe of France reacts after an injury during a quarter final match between Portugal and France at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Kylian Mbappe of France reacts after an injury during a quarter final match between Portugal and France at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Hamburg, Germany, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Obie Williams said he could hear babies crying and branches battering the windows when he spoke with his daughter on the phone last week as Hurricane Helene tore through her rural Georgia town.
Kobe Williams, 27, and her month-old twin boys were hunkering down at their trailer home in Thomson, Georgia, with her mother, Mary Jones, who had been helping her take care of the babies. Williams’ father sensed his daughter was fearing for her safety, and she promised her father she would heed his advice to shelter in the bathroom with her babies until the storm passed.
The single mother had been sitting in bed holding sons Khyzier and Khazmir and chatting on the phone with various family members while the storm raged outside.
Minutes later, she was no longer answering their calls.
Jones, who was on the other side of the trailer, described hearing a loud crash as a tree fell through the roof of her daughter’s bedroom.
“Kobe, Kobe, answer me, please,” Jones cried out in desperation, but she received no response.
Kobe and the twins were found dead.
“I’d seen pictures when they were born and pictures every day since, but I hadn’t made it out there yet to meet them,” Obie Williams told The Associated Press days after the storm ravaged eastern Georgia. “Now I’ll never get to meet my grandsons. It’s devastating.”
The babies, born Aug. 20, are the youngest known victims of a storm that had claimed 200 lives across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas as of Thursday. Among the other young victims are a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south in Washington County, Georgia.
“She was so excited to be a mother of those beautiful twin boys,” said Chiquita Jones-Hampton, Kobe’ Jones’ niece. “She was doing such a good job and was so proud to be their mom.”
Jones-Hampton, who considered Kobe a sister, said the family is in shock and heartbroken.
In Obie Williams’ home city of Augusta, 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of his daughter’s home in Thomson, power lines stretched along the sidewalks, tree branches blocked the roads and utility poles lay cracked and broken. The debris left him trapped in his neighborhood near the South Carolina border for a little over a day after the storm barreled through.
He said one of his sons dodged fallen trees and downed power lines to check on Kobe, and he could barely bear to tell his father what he found.
Many of his 14 other children are still without power in their homes across Georgia. Some have sought refuge in Atlanta, and others have traveled to Augusta to see their father and mourn together, he said.
He described his daughter as a lovable, social and strong woman. She always had a smile and loved to make people laugh, he said.
And she loved to dance, Jones-Hampton said.
“That was my baby,” Williams said. “And everybody loved her.”
This story has been updated to clarify the circumstances of the deaths after further conversations with family members.
Andy Brown takes a break on top of what remains of a tree that destroyed his SUV when it fell during Hurricane Helene on in Augusta, Ga., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., greets people who were impacted by Hurricane Helene in Augusta, Ga., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, during a visit with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Volunteers for Operation BBQ Relief prepare meals for people without power or water, Oct. 1, 2024, in Augusta, Georgia. (AP Photo / Jeffrey Collins)
Andy Brown uses a chain saw to cut apart a tree that destroyed his SUV when it fell during Hurricane Helene on in Augusta, Ga., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
Undated photos twin brothers Khazmir Williams and Khyzier Williams, who were killed along with their mother Kobe Williams, in their home in Thomson, Ga., by a falling tree during Hurricane Helene on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Obie Lee Williams via AP)
This undated photo shows Kobe Williams, who was killed with her twin sons Khazmir Williams and Khyzier Williams in their home in Thomson, Ga., by a falling tree during Hurricane Helene on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Obie Lee Williams via AP)
This undated photo combo shows from left, Kobe Williams, and her twin sons Khazmir Williams and Khyzier Williams who were killed in their home in Thomson, Ga., by a falling tree during Hurricane Helene on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Obie Lee Williams via AP)
