Ancelotti Not Thinking About Mbappé Just Yet, Says Focus Remains on Winning This Season

Real Madrid's Italian head coach Carlo Ancelotti holds a press conference following a training session of the team held at Valdebebas sports city in Madrid, Spain, 17 February 2024.(EPA)
Real Madrid's Italian head coach Carlo Ancelotti holds a press conference following a training session of the team held at Valdebebas sports city in Madrid, Spain, 17 February 2024.(EPA)
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Ancelotti Not Thinking About Mbappé Just Yet, Says Focus Remains on Winning This Season

Real Madrid's Italian head coach Carlo Ancelotti holds a press conference following a training session of the team held at Valdebebas sports city in Madrid, Spain, 17 February 2024.(EPA)
Real Madrid's Italian head coach Carlo Ancelotti holds a press conference following a training session of the team held at Valdebebas sports city in Madrid, Spain, 17 February 2024.(EPA)

Coach Carlo Ancelotti is trying to keep Real Madrid focused on the task at hand despite all the talk about Kylian Mbappé.

Ancelotti said Saturday he is not thinking about the possible signing of Mbappé, and that his only concern is to get his team ready for Sunday’s match at Rayo Vallecano in the Spanish league.

Mbappé on Thursday told Paris Saint-Germain he will leave the French club at the end of the season, opening the door for a possible move by Madrid to sign the star forward.

Madrid tried signing Mbappé a couple of years ago, but the player ended up staying with PSG.

“I see and hear things,” Ancelotti said. “And I understand that it is the topic of the day for you, but for us it’s tomorrow’s game. We have to play well tomorrow, that’s what I think.”

Ancelotti sidestepped questions about whether his players were talking about Mbappé in the locker room, or about whether he would like to coach the forward.

“We talked about the game, we saw videos of Rayo, we know that this is a vital game for us this season,” Ancelotti said. “What I would like to do is to finish this season well, to win titles. That’s what I would like. There’s a long time to go before next season.”

Midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni said recently that he and his Madrid teammates did talk about France colleague Mbappé at times, saying it was an important subject.

Mbappé will be a free agent after seven years with PSG. He informed the French club last year that he would not trigger an extension to the contract he signed in 2022.

There could be a bidding war among several clubs to sign the former World Cup winner, but Madrid is widely considered to be in the front seat. Mbappé never hid his dream of one day playing for the Spanish powerhouse.

Madrid has a five-point lead over Girona in the Spanish league. It defeated Leipzig 1-0 in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Champions League.



‘Flooding Rains’ Threaten to Dampen Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony

Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Spectators are seen behind the Eiffel Tower ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Reuters)
Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Spectators are seen behind the Eiffel Tower ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Reuters)
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‘Flooding Rains’ Threaten to Dampen Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony

Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Spectators are seen behind the Eiffel Tower ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Reuters)
Paris 2024 Olympics - Opening Ceremony - Paris, France - July 26, 2024. Spectators are seen behind the Eiffel Tower ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Reuters)

The Paris Olympics look likely to get off to a soggy start.

Meteo-France, the French weather service, is predicting “flooding rains” Friday evening when the opening ceremony is set to unroll along the Seine River. But the show is set to go on as planned, starting at 1:30 p.m. EDT/7:30 p.m. CEST and should last more than three hours.

Already in the late afternoon, skies were gray with intermittent drizzle. There was a silver lining, though, with temperatures expected to stay relatively warm throughout the evening.

Instead of a traditional march into a stadium, about 6,800 athletes will parade on more than 90 boats on the Seine River for 6 kilometers (3.7 miles). Though 10,700 athletes are expected to compete at these Olympics, hundreds of soccer players are based outside Paris, surfers are in Tahiti and many have yet to arrive for their events in the second week, organizers said Thursday.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including 320,000 paying and invited ticket-holders, are expected to line the Seine’s banks as athletes are paraded along the river on boats.