Kylian Mbappe And Who? The French Star Needs Rivalry Like Ronaldo-Messi Says Michael Owen

With Ronaldo confirming that the ongoing Euro 2024 will be his last appearance in the tournament, the focus will be on the stars of the future who can fill in the big shoes and Owen feels there are plenty of young talent to take the centre stage.

“Well, there will be stars of the future. Kylian Mbappe is going to be one of the greatest players,” Owen replied to a PTI query during a virtual interaction organised by SonyLiv.

"He has (Ronaldo) already said this will be his last year or so. It's life. We've probably seen him already at his best. He's not going to get any better now."

"It's (time) for the new players to come through, someone like Mbappe, (Jamal) Musiala, (Jude) Bellingham, (Phil) Foden... (there are) some great players coming through."

"But you'd have to say Mbappe is something special, something that when you watch a game, he takes your breath away.

“Maybe he needs somebody else to push like Messi and Ronaldo have had throughout the careers. But in terms of quality, over the next five, six, seven, eight years, we're going to be very entertained by Mbappe,” Owen added.

The French captain, with a masked vision, has managed just one goal in the ongoing Euro where they managed to sneak into the quarters riding on an own goal from Belgium.

The stage is now set for a Mbappe vs Ronaldo showdown with France taking on Portugal in the last-eight on Saturday (12.30 IST).

Owen said Ronaldo must continue to start for Portugal.

"When you've got somebody as good as him, he must play. Nobody scores goals like him. Just his very name on this team sheet, it gives Portugal a presence, it gives them an identity,” Owen said.

"If you want the ball to stop at one person's feet anywhere in the world and put your life on it, in the last minute (let’s say) against France, who it's going to be? You want it to be Ronaldo,” the England great added.

'France, best in world'

Terming last World Cup’s runners-up France as the "best team in the world", Owen backed them to do well here on in the competition which has witnessed the ‘dark horses’ do well.

“What we have seen is a lot of big teams, strong teams, being on one side of the draw and that's given opportunity on the other side of the draw for some of the dark horses, for want of a better phrase,” he said.

“England obviously have been quite fortunate to be on that side of the draw, but it might be a surprise package that comes from that side.”

"Before the tournament, I thought France were the likeliest winners. They've been given some tough games now -- it might be difficult for them -- but I still think that they're the best team in Europe. I think they're the best team in the world probably at the moment,” he added.

Owen said England need to be better if they have to end their long wait for winning the Euro Cup.

“England obviously have struggled a lot. They will need to improve otherwise they won't win it, but we all know they can be better. The good thing is we know England are better than this. We know their performances can get better and if they do get better, they have a very good chance of winning this tournament,” he said.

However, Owen wants England manager Gareth Southgate to make changes even though he says won’t be done.

“Not many teams that win a major tournament have playing perfect games right the way through. You look at the last World Cup, Argentina, in the group stage, things can go wrong and sometimes it's good to have a little few problems and sort of build into the tournament."

“I'm trying to look at positives for England, because if you look at the performances, there are no positives really. All we can do is hope. I hope that the manager changes one or two things, but I don't think he will,” he added.