Kylian Mbappe revealed he considered taking a break from playing for France after their disappointment at Euro 2020.
Mbappe endured a frustrating campaign at the European Championship, culminating in him missing the decisive spot-kick against Switzerland as Les Bleus succumbed to a shock last-16 exit.
The 22-year-old left the major tournament without a goal to his name, despite attempting 14 shots across 390 minutes of action, before returning to Paris Saint-Germain, where reports swirled of a potential move to Real Madrid.
The France international was also embroiled in a pre-tournament public war of words with fellow striker Olivier Giroud, who claimed members of Didier Deschamps' side were not passing to him before their opener against Germany.
With the poor performances and the early exit for the 2018 World Cup winners, reports emerged that Mbappe was a disruptive figure within the France setup, leading to the superstar contemplating a hiatus from the national team.
"I have always placed the French national team above everything and I will always put it above everything," Mbappe told French outlet L’Equipe ahead of the Nations League semi-final against Belgium.
"I have never taken a single Euro to play for the French national team and I will always play for my national team for free.
"Above all, I never wanted to be a problem. But from the moment where I felt like that I was starting to become a problem and that people felt I was a problem - the most important thing is the French national team.
"And if the French national team is happier without me... that is what I was made to feel and that is what I felt.
"I received the message, that my ego was what made us lose, that I wanted to take up too much space, and that without me, therefore, we might have won.
"I met with the [FFF] president, [Noel] Le Graet, and we had exchanges."
Deschamps' world champions seemingly had their Euro 2020 quarter-final berth in their grasp, leading 3-1 with just over 10 minutes remaining.
However, two late goals for Switzerland marked a remarkable comeback, which peaked when Yann Sommer guessed the right way against Mbappe in the shoot-out.
Along with the failure from 12 yards, Mbappe did not muster a shot on target despite firing in six attempts against Vladimir Petkovic's side but the barrage of abuse, including racist comments, is what left the former Monaco forward considering his future.
"I have so much love for the French national team that I abstract from it all," he continued. "What shocked me, again, was being called a monkey for the penalty.
"That is what I wanted support around, not because I took my penalty to the left and Sommer stopped it: that is on me, that is my foot that did that.
"I was booed in all of the stadiums in France! Aside from that, there was not just that, there was also the transfer, but the reality is that I was booed in all the stadiums, yes.
"But I understand everything around the sporting world now: if you are not good, you accept what people say, there you go.
"You just have to look at yourself in the mirror: I was not as good as I should have been, I accept it, and I live with this failure because it will serve me well."
Kleindienst receives maiden Germany call-up
Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann has handed a first call-up to forward Tim Kleindienst in his latest squad.
Kleindienst scored 12 Bundesliga goals for Heidenheim last season.
Those goals propelled Heidenheim to an eighth-place finish, and secured Kleindienst a move to Borussia Monchengladbach.
Since the start of last season, Kleindienst has contested the most duels (622) and made the most sprints (1216) of any player in the Bundesliga.
The 29-year-old has already netted twice for his new club, and with West Ham's Niclas Fullkrug out injured, Nagelsmann has given Kleindienst the nod for October's Nations League clashes with Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Netherlands.
"Kleindienst at Heidenheim performed well over an entire year and he has integrated himself well at his new club Borussia Moenchengladbach," said Nagelsmann.
"He has earned this. The injury to Fullkrug is a good opportunity to test Tim. He now has to prove himself."
Marc-Andre ter Stegen's long-term injury, meanwhile, means Oliver Baumann is a likely candidate to start in goal.
The Hoffenheim goalkeeper will be aged 34 years and 131 days on October 11, when Germany take on Bosnia.
Should Baumann play, he will become the third-oldest player to make his first appearances for Germany.
Germany squad in full:
Oliver Baumann (Hoffenheim), Janis Blaswich (Salzburg), Alexander Nubel (Stuttgart); Waldemar Anton (Borussia Dortmund), Benjamin Henrichs (RB Leipzig), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Robin Koch (Eintracht Frankfurt), Maximilian Mittelstadt (Stuttgart), David Raum (RB Leipzig), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen); Robert Andrich (Bayer Leverkusen), Chris Fuhrich (VfB Stuttgart), Pascal Gross (Borussia Dortmund), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Alexander Pavlovic (Bayern Munich), Angelo Stiller (VfB Stuttgart), Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen); Serge Gnabry (Bayern Munich), Kai Havertz (Arsenal), Deniz Undav (Stuttgart), Tim Kleindienst (Borussia Monchengladbach).
'Now we think about what's next' – Messi switches focus to MLS Cup
Lionel Messi set his sights on MLS Cup success after leading Inter Miami to the Supporters' Shield.
Messi scored twice as Miami beat the Columbus Crew 3-2 on Wednesday and secured the Supporters' Shield for the first time in their history.
The regular-season points record in MLS is also on the cards for Miami, though they must win their remaining two games before the playoffs in order to surpass the tally of 73 set by the New England Revolution in 2021.
And Messi is now focused on the next task at hand.
"We suffered until the end," Messi told MLS Season Pass. "It shows what this team is about."
In quotes reported by BBC Sport, Messi said: "The first objective has been achieved and now we have to think about what's next.
"The first round is three games but then it's one game and anything can happen. But we have the great advantage of playing all the games at home, which is what we were looking for. We are very strong at home."
Messi's sentiment was echoed by Miami coach Gerardo Martino.
He said: "We reached the objective.
"We have good moments in the game, suffering moments in the game, and it happens to everybody to be able to achieve something.
“Now we can say, with our results and our game, we’re able to think that we've gotten to a higher level. I am not one of these people that strictly goes by results, that chases results. We are in a construction period and a building period, something similar.
"We are in the process of creating that thing, a franchise that thinks of more and that gets to win more than lose. And this is very essential, this is very important, that we've changed, and done so in a very short time. With today, we've got 20 wins in the league, and at other times we couldn't have thought of that. To change that dynamic for us is very important."
Simeone takes positives but Oblak slams 'pitiful' Atletico performance
Jan Oblak hit out at a "pitiful" performance from Atletico Madrid after their 4-0 loss to Benfica in the Champions League.
Benfica recorded their joint-biggest victory in a Champions League home match (alongside 5-1 vs Club Brugge in March 2023), as Atletico suffered their heaviest ever defeat to Portuguese opposition in the competition.
Atletico had only four shots, failing to get any of them on target, and mustered just 0.24 expected goals (xG).
Benfica, on the other hand, had 19 shots and accumulated 4.46 xG.
While Diego Simeone believed there were positives to take, Oblak, who made six saves to keep the scoreline from getting even more humiliating, was far more scathing of Atletico's display in Lisbon.
"It's pitiful to lose like this, it's not a good image to give and there's not much more to say. We weren't good today, to say the least," Oblak told Movistar Plus.
"Sometimes games like this happen, but we can't afford it because we gave a woeful impression today. I don't have a single positive thing I can say today.
"We didn't show up and there's not much more to say. Nobody is saved from what happened today, we have to accept it and move forward."
Simone accepted Atletico "played badly", but did feel it was not all doom and gloom.
"I always like to think positively and I think it's a good opportunity to keep improving," Simeone told Movistar Plus.
"We had been doing a very good job, today we didn't play the game we expected, but we have to keep going.
"We played badly. We have to accept that. We didn't play well, the substitutions didn't give us the spark that they gave us at other times. We played badly, they were better and we have to accept that.
"There was no lack of tension, attitude or desire to run, we just played badly and when you play badly you are exposed to losses like this.
"We had been doing a very good job and today the game that you don't want to see appeared.
"Some nights are not good and we have to accept them and try to learn from what we had to go through today and recover energy for Sunday's LaLiga game [at Real Sociedad]."
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