France’s winger Ousmane Dembélé feels his teammate Kylian Mbappe’s criticism has gone too far. Mbappe has faced criticism for Real Madrid’s poor form in La Liga, which Dembélé thinks is unfair.

The Real Madrid forward has been surprisingly booed by his own fans in Madrid. Furthermore, there was a petition signed by millions of fans for his exit from the club.

“The criticism towards him is very, very unfair. Some people go a bit too far with the criticism of Kylian,” Dembele said on Marca.

“He’s an incredible player and a very good person off the pitch. Some people overdo the criticism because he’s Kylian Mbappé. They shouldn’t keep going after him.

“Whether he ties his shoelaces or not, whether he pulls up his socks or not … It’s too much. He’s still a human being. With the France team, he’s very good with us, he’s a leader.”

Meanwhile, the ongoing World Cup will be Didier Deschamps’ last assignment with the Les Bleus, and Dembele showered praise on the manager. Zinedine Zidane is expected to take over the coaching baton after the World Cup.

“He’s simply an exceptional coach [Deschamps]. He will forever remain a legend among French national team coaches,” he added.

“We hope to welcome him [Zidane] one day to the France bench. I’m convinced he would do a fantastic job.”

Dembélé scored in the summit clash of the 2018 World Cup in France’s win in 2018, whereas Mbappé scored a hat trick in the 2022 World Cup final against Argentina, but his efforts went in vain as they suffered a loss on penalties.

France, the previous edition’s World Cup runners-up, will begin their World Cup campaign against Senegal on Tuesday.