Zlatan Ibrahimovic has questioned Kylian Mbappe’s desire to become one of football’s greatest players after the France star snubbed Real Madrid to sign an extension with Paris Saint-Germain last summer.

“Mbappe, as a person I do not know him very well. As a player, he is fantastic,” Ibrahimovic said in an interview with Canal Plus, as translated by ESPN. “But when you lose discipline, you lose your identity.

“There is a reason why Zidane is Zidane. Mbappe wants to imitate him? That he starts to want to progress. Not to be satisfied.

“He made the right choice for Paris not for himself. Because he put himself in a situation where he is more important than the club. And the club gave him the keys for that. But you are never bigger than a club. But when a child becomes strong, he can easily earn money.”

Ibrahimovic also slammed Mbappe’s advisers for meddling in the star’s career and turning last summer’s transfer saga into a media circus.

“So his parents become lawyers, agents, coaches. From one thing they become another,” he said. “And that’s the problem. That’s when you lose your self-discipline and who you are.

“Today with this new generation, the parents, dad, mom, who you want, they think they have become stars. They talk in the newspapers. But who do you think you are? Shut up. It is up to your son, the player, to work and have discipline.”

Mbappe appeared set for a move away from Paris last summer amid reports linking him with a transfer to last season’s Champions League winner Real Madrid. But speculation ended after he made a sensational U-turn and signed an extension.

The 23-year-old became one of the world’s highest-paid footballers after agreeing to a new three-year contract reportedly worth $128 million for the 2022-23 season, according to Forbes.

However, In October, reports emerged claiming Mbappe felt betrayed by PSG and was eager to leave in the January transfer window. But the 2018 World Cup winner later denied the report, saying he never asked to leave.

Ibrahimovic helped PSG win the Ligue 1 title during each of his four years in Paris before leaving in 2016. He returned to Milan in 2020 after stints at Manchester United and LA Galaxy.

The Champions League group stage concludes this week. Below, we dissect the biggest talking points from Tuesday’s action in Europe’s premier club competition.

Mignolet made the Club Brugge surprise possible

The departures of head coach Alfred Schreuder, playmaker Charles De Ketelaere, and towering frontman Bas Dost indicated Club Brugge was a team in transition. Many predicted the Belgian side would flounder in Group B. But the reality was very different. Club Brugge progressed with a six-point cushion in second place, while Atletico Madrid finished bottom following Tuesday’s 0-0 draw at Bayer Leverkusen.

And no player deserves more credit for Club Brugge’s feat than Simon Mignolet.

The 34-year-old added a spectacular swat at Patrik Schick’s 54th-minute header to his acts of heroism during an excellent European campaign. He previously produced 12 saves across both fixtures against Atletico without conceding and has generally been a reassuring presence between the sticks for Carl Hoefkens’ outfit.

He’s helped Club Brugge recalibrate their expectations.

“I don’t think we should be disappointed with the performance today,” Mignolet said after Brugge finished second following the final round of fixtures in their quartet. “Porto have been on a good run and were probably the best in the group.

“But our five clean sheets still mean something. We are advancing to the next round, and that’s the most important thing.”

Mignolet appeared to cower under the bright lights of Anfield during his six-year stay with Liverpool. His performances were so troubling that fans regularly called for him to be dropped, even when there were unconvincing options in reserve, such as Brad Jones and Adam Bogdan. He returned to Belgium in 2019 with his tail between his legs.

He’s unrecognizable as the stoic leader of Club Brugge, where he’s been key to ensuring his side made a mockery of pre-tournament predictions with their straightforward path into the knockout rounds. Mignolet’s resurgence is undoubtedly one of the standout stories of the Champions League season.

Spurs need to be so much better

There was a moment that summed up Tottenham Hotspur’s lack of ambition in the first half.

Usually, a player with Heung-Min Son’s counter-attacking ability lurks outside or on the edge of the box during an opponent’s corner kick, waiting to retrieve a loose ball and burst upfield. Instead, the ball spilled to Son deep inside his own box, and he smashed it as far away as he could, allowing Marseille goalkeeper Pau Lopez to restart another attack for the hosts.

There wasn’t much else Son could’ve done. The South Korean forward and his teammates were crammed into their own area.

And in the rare occasions Spurs ventured into Marseille’s defensive third, they were ruinously negative and uninspired. It’s disappointing to see attackers as gifted as Son and Harry Kane stifled by Antonio Conte’s frustratingly unadventurous game plan.

Conte – who watched from the stands after his red card during Spurs’ previous Champions League outing – and his backroom staff would likely gesture toward Group D’s final standings if anyone questioned their approach to games. First place in such a competitive quartet is commendable, especially when the Italian’s thin squad has recently dealt with costly injuries. A 2-1 win away at the raucous Stade Velodrome is always a fine result.

But playing like that in the competition’s knockout rounds isn’t sustainable. Spurs don’t possess the defensive quality to hold out the best Champions League teams – Chancel Mbemba was given too much space to shape himself for his first-half header. And, unlike when ex-Arsenal left-back Sead Kolasinac somehow missed a golden opportunity at the back post in the 87th minute, they’ll be punished in critical moments.

Being conservative might be the best way to manage this Tottenham team when it has so little creativity in midfield. Still, there has to be a way to pair deep defensive and midfield lines with more freedom for Son and Kane.

Right now, Spurs’ best players are being wasted.

The Champions League roller coaster

Going into Tuesday’s action, Marseille had permutations aplenty. The French club could finish in any four Group D spots, depending on their own result against Tottenham and the concurrent fixture between Eintracht Frankfurt and Sporting CP. The margin between a place in the Champions League knockout stage and being eliminated from European competition was slim. A wild ride was a distinct possibility.

They rode the roller coaster.

When Mbemba scored just before halftime to give Marseille a 1-0 lead, they were in line to advance. They dropped to third in the table when Spurs equalized early in the second stanza, out of the Champions League but still good enough to salvage a Europa League place. Then, following the heart-wrenching Kolasinac miss, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s 95th-minute rocket condemned Igor Tudor’s team to fourth place. Just like that. So long, Europe.

Sporting, too, fell victim to the wild emotional swings that only the Champions League can deliver. The Portuguese side won its first two group stage matches, only to finish third and miss the round of 16. As if to twist the knife, their bitter Portuguese rivals, FC Porto, lost the first two games of their Champions League campaign but rebounded emphatically to top Group B.

Admittedly, this tournament has flaws. The group stage has developed into a procession for some of the continent’s wealthiest teams. But when it delivers, the drama remains unmatched.

Anguissa flourishing this season

Liverpool’s struggles this season are down to a variety of factors – there’s no singular solution for Jurgen Klopp. However, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the club’s deteriorating midfield is playing a huge role in the Reds’ inability to sustain their recent high standards.

In Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Liverpool got a firsthand look at someone capable of rectifying the issues plaguing Klopp’s midfield. The Napoli standout, enjoying the best season of his career for Luciano Spalletti’s high-flying side, has a unique blend of skills that would perfectly provide what the Merseyside outfit is currently missing.

The flourishing Anguissa, 26, is press-resistant and good in tight areas like Thiago Alcantara but offers more box-to-box coverage. He’s a feisty tackler like Fabinho but provides more attacking drive and scoring ability. He’s dynamic in possession like Naby Keita but can actually stay fit. The Cameroonian is the type of do-it-all player who can impact the game in different ways, including those that don’t show up on the stat sheet. In that way, he’s not dissimilar from prime Georginio Wijnaldum, a player who would help Liverpool immensely right now.

Even in a match that Napoli lost – their first defeat of the season in all competitions – Anguissa caught the eye at Anfield. The signs were there at Fulham, despite the team around him floundering. Now, in the right system, it’s all coming together.

Inter Miami are growing increasingly confident they’ll sign Lionel Messi ahead of the 2023 Major League Soccer season, reports David Ornstein of The Athletic.

David Beckham’s MLS franchise is so optimistic, in fact, that club officials now “expect” Messi to arrive and are hopeful a contract will be sealed in the coming months, Ornstein adds.

Messi, 35, is scheduled to become a free agent next summer when his current deal with Paris Saint-Germain expires. If he doesn’t agree to an extension by the end of the calendar year, he’ll be free to negotiate a pre-contract agreement with any club of his choosing beginning in January.

PSG are reportedly working to prolong the Argentine icon’s stay, while a return to former club Barcelona has also been touted. But Inter Miami’s proposal is the most advanced, according to Ornstein, with the two parties having been in discussions over a move for “a couple of years.”

Though Beckham and the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner have a good relationship, negotiations are being led by Jorge and Jose Mas, the brothers who co-own Inter Miami alongside the former England star. They’ve held “numerous” meetings with Messi’s father, Jorge, Ornstein notes.

For now, conversations between the sides will be halted until after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where Messi will make his final appearance at the tournament with Argentina.

Inter Miami believe Messi and his family, who already own property in the city that boasts strong community ties to Latin America, will be persuaded to make the move by a variety of factors.

Messi, who’d instantly become the most high-profile acquisition in MLS history, would be the face of the league, and soccer in the United States, just as the country is gearing up to co-host the 2026 World Cup. On the pitch, Inter Miami are growing in stature, too. They reached the MLS playoffs for the first time this season and are working to build a squad capable of long-term success.

And, perhaps most importantly, the club continues to push forward with plans to construct Miami Freedom Park, the $1-billion complex that will eventually house Inter Miami’s new 25,000-seat stadium.

Messi, who appears rejuvenated after a slow start to his PSG tenure, is back to his best this season. In 16 matches between Ligue 1 and the Champions League, the veteran superstar has recorded 11 goals and 13 assists.