The father of well-known French player Kylian Mbappe has disclosed that he wanted his son to play for his country Cameroon but they charged him an amount of money he couldn’t afford.
Amidst the World Cup 2022 match, some fans and concerned social media users questioned why Mbappe was playing for France and not his country Cameroon.
The father of Mbappe, Wilfried claimed that a member of the Cameroon Football Federation demanded money before his son could join the national team. He disclosed that he couldn’t afford the amount demanded.
At first, I wanted my son to play for Cameroon, but someone at the Cameroon Football Federation charged an amount of money that I did not have to play him. The French did not charge anything,” he said via Cameroon Concord News.
He added; Being a member of the national team is a privilege, and Kylian’s father believes that players should not be paid to represent their country. Kylian Mbappe equally supported the corruption claim made by his father against the Cameroonian National Team when he said;
“I am not Cameroonian. I am French. At the beginning of my career, when I was still in the shadows, my father called on Fecafoot to make me play for the Cameroon National team but a large sum of money was requested from us to be admitted to the team. My father being disgusted therefore turned to France. And France gave me a chance to show what I was worth”.
“Today, Cameroon is calling on me, they are giving me a nationality that is not mine. I am French and I will remain French”, said the man whom specialists consider to be one of the greatest players of the following decade.