France forward Ousmane Dembélé has said that criticism of his teammate Kylian Mbappé has "gone too far" with the Real Madrid star taking the brunt of the scrutiny for the LaLiga side's poor form.
Mbappé has frequently been jeered by his own fans in Madrid and even had a petition calling for his exit from the club remarkably reach millions of signatures.
Mbappé joined Madrid on a free transfer in 2024 and has seen his former side Paris Saint-Germain win the Champions League twice in that time, while Madrid have struggled both domestically and on the continent.
Speaking to Spanish newspaper Marca, PSG's Dembélé said that the talk around Mbappé is "unfair."
"The criticism towards him is very, very unfair. Some people go a bit too far with the criticism of Kylian," he said.
"He's an incredible player and a very good person off the pitch. Some people overdo the criticism because he's Kylian Mbappé. They shouldn't keep going after him.
"Whether he ties his shoelaces or not, whether he pulls up his socks or not ... It's too much. He's still a human being. With the France team, he's very good with us, he's a leader."
France begin their World Cup campaign against Senegal on Tuesday with the tournament set to be manager Didier Deschamps' last hurrah at the helm.
Former Madrid coach and France legend Zinedine Zidane has been widely linked as Deschamps' replacement and Dembélé has no reservations about him taking charge.
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"He's simply an exceptional coach [Deschamps]. He will forever remain a legend among French national team coaches," he added.
"We hope to welcome him [Zidane] one day to the France bench. I'm convinced he would do a fantastic job."
Dembélé scored in the final in France's World Cup win in 2018, with Mbappé netting a hat trick in the nation's loss to Argentina in the 2022 final as they look to go one better in the United States this year.