Kylian Mbappe (d) celebrates with Achraf Hakimi, in one of PSG’s last matches before the World Cup. (Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP via Getty Images)
Kylian Mbappé and Achraf Hakimi will put their friendship aside when France play Morocco in the World Cup semifinals on Wednesday and both might try to fulfill a promise they made.
“After we play once morest Morocco, I have to destroy my friend,” Mbappe said in a video during a trip to Qatar in January with his club Paris Saint Germain.
“I’m going to kick him,” a smiling Hakimi replied.
With Mbappe on the left wing of France’s attack, he will cross paths with right-back Hakimi, the player he took under his wing when the Moroccan signed for PSG from Inter Milan in 2021.
They both sit next to each other on plane rides, play video games, and spend vacations together.
Although Morocco will have no special plans to chain Mbappé, as England did with Kyle Walker close behind and doubling him in their 2-1 quarter-final defeat, coach Walid Regragui has full faith in Hakimi.
“I have no doubt that Hakimi will be in top form to surpass his friend,” Regragui declared at a press conference on Tuesday.
Mbappé scored five goals and gave two assists in this World Cup, while Hakimi has been key so that Morocco has only conceded 10 shots on goal in its five games.
Hakimi celebrated his winning penalty once morest Spain in the round of 16 by imitating a penguin, something he does with Mbappe and Sergio Ramos at PSG.
Mbappe, who also visited Hakimi at his Doha hotel on one of his World Cup days off, was one of the first to congratulate him as Morocco qualified for the quarterfinals.
The captain of France, Hugo Lloris, is confident that their friendship will be parked in the Al Bayt stadium.
“The event will prevail. Even if they are friends off the field, it is the World Cup, so you have to separate the two things,” he declared at a press conference.
