Kylian Mbappé sparked controversy by saying that South American football is not as "advanced" as European football. This brought a wave of criticism towards the PSG forward, and one of them came from a familiar face in Peruvian football.
Gerardo Pelusso, former coach who had a spell at Alianza Lima between 2006 and 2007, expressed his disagreement with what 'Kiki' said and claimed that the Frenchman has no idea what it feels like to play on our continent.
"The thing is that Mbappé is a very young boy, obviously the first thing that should be done is to teach him a bit of history, to study some universal football history, and also teach him a bit of geography, for him to know what South America is, how South America is (...). He has no idea of what happens here, so he knows how South American qualifiers are like," said the Uruguayan coach after a press conference.
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Agrees with Mourinho
Likewise, he considered what Jose Mourinho said years ago about the South American qualifiers. "I take much more into account what Mourinho said because he is intelligent, he knows and understands history. He said that South American qualifiers are the most difficult in the world. Going to play at the altitude of La Paz, then descending and playing in the cold of Buenos Aires, and then going to play at 40 degrees in Barranquilla against Colombia. Mbappé doesn't know that, he has no idea. He said anything, that is not to be taken into account," he added.
"We have to consider the voices of other Europeans who truly know our continent and know the history of world football because, for 70 or 80 years, the best players in the world have always been South Americans, except in the 70s with Johan Cruyff (...). For 100 years now, the best players have been South Americans. So, what value can Mbappé have, who has no idea?" he asserted.
Messi and Neymar come into the equation
Finally, he suggested that he could ask his teammates at PSG about South American football. "He doesn't know, he has no idea, but he has Neymar and Messi by his side, who are the two best players in the world, it would be good if he asked them a bit," he concluded.
Pelusso on Mbappé's comment