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PSG’s Mbappe Unfazed by Transfer Speculation

France's forward Kylian Mbappe arrives in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines on November 13, 2023 as part of the team's preparation for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament qualifying matches. (AFP)
France's forward Kylian Mbappe arrives in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines on November 13, 2023 as part of the team's preparation for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament qualifying matches. (AFP)
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PSG’s Mbappe Unfazed by Transfer Speculation

France's forward Kylian Mbappe arrives in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines on November 13, 2023 as part of the team's preparation for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament qualifying matches. (AFP)
France's forward Kylian Mbappe arrives in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines on November 13, 2023 as part of the team's preparation for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament qualifying matches. (AFP)

Paris St Germain forward Kylian Mbappe said he would not let speculation over his future at the Ligue 1 club pollute his performances on the pitch.

Earlier this year, Mbappe said he would not renew his contract at PSG, which expires at the end of the 2023-24 season when he could leave Paris for free. The France captain has been linked with a move to Spanish giants Real Madrid.

"(Questions around my future are) not something that weighs on me. On the pitch, I don't think about that. I just think about playing, being efficient, and winning titles," Mbappe told reporters ahead of France's UEFA qualifier against Gibraltar.

"I've always done that. I've always had a lot to deal with off the pitch and that hasn't stopped me from achieving what I have. When I'm out on the pitch, I don't get caught up in the outside world.

"I've started this season with the desire to think only about my football and not to think about outside things or bring in things from outside, to pollute my football, so the most important thing for me today is to play."

Mbappe also dismissed any talk of a rift between him and PSG manager Luis Enrique. The 24-year-old was singled out for criticism by the PSG boss following a 3-0 win over Reims last week, despite scoring all three goals in the league match.

Asked about the criticism, Mbappe said: "I honestly don't know. You'd have to ask (Luis Enrique) why this timing. But I took it very well and, as I said, he's a great coach. I know he has a lot to offer me, a lot to teach me.

"I'm a player who's very demanding with myself and if I can find that demand with my coach, I'm very happy, because I know it's going to take me very high up.

"I don't necessarily need the coach to say every day that I'm the best in the world for me to play well."

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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”