French football captain Kylian Mbappé has clashed publicly with Rassemblement National (RN) President Jordan Bardella after the Real Madrid striker renewed his criticism of the right-wing party in an interview with Vanity Fair.
The 27-year-old has warned about the “consequences” for France should the RN win the country’s 2027 presidential election, telling the magazine that his fame and wealth did not entitle him to keep silent on politics.
“We are citizens, and we couldn’t just sit there and tell ourselves everything is going to be fine and go play,” Mbappé said in the interview, published on May 12, 2026, around a month before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. “We truly try to fight this idea that a footballer should shut up and play.”
The Real Madrid forward, who is from a working-class Parisian suburb, said he knew “what consequences it can have” for France if “people like them come to power”, according to comments cited by The Guardian.
Bardella, the 30-year-old RN President and the party’s likely presidential candidate, hit back on social media platform X with a sarcastic jab at the player’s recent career path.
“And I know what happens when Kylian Mbappé leaves PSG: the club wins the Champions League!” he wrote, in a reference to Paris Saint-Germain securing its historic title in 2025 after Mbappé’s departure to Madrid.
In separate comments reported by French media, Bardella took aim at the footballer’s wealth, saying it was “embarrassing to see deep-pocketed athletes give lessons to people who can no longer make ends meet, who no longer feel safe”.
Marine Le Pen, the longtime RN leader who has been barred from holding public office for five years following a March 2025 conviction in a fake jobs case, also dismissed Mbappé’s influence in a separate interview with RTL radio.
“Frankly, I think football fans are free enough to know who to vote for without being influenced by Mbappé,” she said.
RN spokesman and MP Julien Odoul argued that, as the captain of Les Bleus, Mbappé had a duty to represent the entire nation – including the millions who vote for the RN – rather than acting as a partisan activist.
The exchange has come as Bardella and the RN continue to lead national polling ahead of the 2027 contest. A November 2025 Odoxa survey put Bardella ahead of all tested rivals in second-round matchups, including former prime ministers Gabriel Attal and Édouard Philippe, France Unbowed (LFI) leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the moderate left politician Raphaël Glucksmann.
A March 2026 poll by Toluna–Harris Interactive placed the RN President at around 35 to 36 per cent across first-round scenarios, while Glucksmann trailed at about 14 per cent.
Le Pen, who is appealing her conviction, has said Bardella would be the RN’s candidate should her ban be upheld.
