Three years ago France and Kylian Mbappe were on top of the world.
The country had just won the World Cup and the striker, at the age of 19, was named the competition’s best young player, culminating in a scintillating performance to beat Croatia in the final.
Roll time on to the summer of 2021 and Mbappe missed the decisive penalty that saw France go out of Euro 2020 in the last 16 at the hands of huge underdogs Switzerland.
As French daily L’Equipe remarked in a headline on their website: “Fallen from so high.”
For Mbappe, this will surely be a minor setback in what is becoming a remarkable career – but is there a reason why he and his world champion team-mates looked so off the pace and are heading home?
Mbappe came into the tournament having scored 41 goals for club and country last season, including winning the French Cup with Paris St-Germain.
But his Euros campaign was a tournament to forget as he failed to score in any of the four games, with his 14 shots without netting the most by any player to this point.
The 22-year-old had the responsibility of taking the fifth penalty against Switzerland, but saw a fairly tame effort superbly saved by Yann Sommer.
