"We Owed You a Better Ending": Mbappe's Heartfelt Letter to France Fans After World Cup Exit

"We owed you a better ending": Mbappe's letter to fans after France's semifinal finish in FIFAWC 2026

Paris, July 27

France, despite dominating a large part of the group and knockout stages, fell to Spain 2-0 and to England 4-6 in the third-place match. Despite Mbappe being the leading goal-scorer of the tournament with 10 goals and surpassing Lionel Messi's tally to become the all-time highest FIFA World Cup scorer with 22 goals, Mbappe could not get the ending he wanted. Nonetheless, his run from 2018 FIFA World Cup title win to the 2026 semifinals, which also included a runners-up finish in 2022, where he gave Messi-led Argentina a scare in the final with a hat-trick, is one of the finest runs in FIFA World Cup history.

The letter published in the regional press on Monday had some personal photos, including a childhood picture of Mbappe standing in front of his idol Thierry Henry.

"We did not bring home a team trophy. It hurts, and it will continue to hurt for a while, I am not going to lie to you about that," he told fans in the letter, as quoted by Goal.com.

He also dedicated a large part of his letter to the fans who followed the tournament despite a lot of time zone differences, noting how they stayed up late, gathered wherever they could to cheer for France,

"You stayed up late, sometimes until the dead of night depending on the time zone, to watch us play on the other side of the world. You gathered at home, in bars, with family or friends, all over France and beyond," he emphasised.

"Others were right there with us, in the stadiums, flags draped over their shoulders. Children with shining eyes, men and women of all backgrounds and generations, united by the same joy: the joy of sharing. That's the power of this sport. And you never gave up on us, even in the toughest moments, even when we least deserved it. This story was written by millions of hands, not just eleven on the field, all driven by the same passion."

"Above all, it is passion, the same passion that drives us on the pitch and drives you, in front of the screen and in the stands. That's what we experienced together, an incredible story," he continued.

Mbappe, being the leading goal-scorer, feels the emptiness that comes with securing individual achievements without a World Cup, saying, "I take the title of top scorer with pride, but it would have been so much better with the cup as well. Perhaps we owed you a better ending. But we do not always choose the ending of the story, we choose what we put into it, and we put everything into it. We are proud of that."

Mbappe thanked his teammates, saying that "without their work, runs, passes and their team spirit", he would not have scored as many goals as he did, and his individual title of FIFAWC 2026 top-scorer belongs to them as much as it does to him. He also spoke on his childhood dream of playing in a FIFA World Cup, having won once in 2018 and having captained in this edition.

"Thank you to my teammates. Without their work, their runs, their passes, without this team spirit that carried us from the first to the last match, I could never have scored so many goals. This title belongs as much to the team as it does to me. As a child, I dreamed of playing in a World Cup, at least one. I played in three, I won one, and this year, I had the honour of playing in it as captain. I will never forget it," he said.

Mbappe also acknowledged the hard work of his mentor and former coach Didier Deschamps, who had announced that FIFAWC 2026 was going to be his final tournament with France. Deschamps, who has achieved World Cup glory with France, is set to be replaced by legend Zinedine Zidane as head coach.

"I have already said what I had to say to Didier, he knows it. Thank you to him, and to all his staff too: physiotherapists, cooks, trainers, drivers, all those people no one ever sees and without whom none of this would be possible. And to those who welcomed us to the United States throughout this tournament," he said.

Lastly, on a concluding note, Mbappe highlighted the simple reason why football brings together everyone with the same passion, saying, "Football, at its core, remains a game. A game that we take very seriously, that we work on our whole lives to try to master, but a game nonetheless, with its simple rules that have not changed since we started playing it: ball, goal, desire to score. That is why it brings us all together with the same passion."

— ANI