Kylian Mbappé, the captain of France’s national soccer team, has sparked discussion by expressing concern about the rise of the far right in the nation. Ahead of the World Cup, he highlighted the dangers posed by the National Rally party in a recent magazine interview.

Mbappé’s stance against the far right is well-known. His latest comments have reignited the relationship between sports and politics. In a profile for Vanity Fair, Mbappé warned about the consequences of the National Rally party winning power. With France’s presidential elections approaching, its candidates Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen are currently leading in polls.

“I know what it means, and what kind of consequences it can have for my country when those kinds of people take control,” Mbappé stated in the article, under the headline “Liberté, Égalité, Mbappé.”

Both Le Pen and Bardella responded swiftly, reviving a debate across Europe: should soccer players engage in political discourse or focus solely on their sport? Mbappé argued, “We are citizens. We have a say, just like everyone else.”

In France, the discussion is intensified since Mbappé is far from ordinary. He emerged from Paris’s working-class suburbs as a soccer prodigy and led France to a World Cup victory in 2018. Today, at age 27, he is considered a national icon. Even President Emmanuel Macron urged him to remain with his Paris club, Paris St.-Germain, instead of transferring to Real Madrid in 2022—a move he eventually made.