Mbappé injured moments after scoring winner on Zidane's France debut
France beat Turkey 1-0 in Zinedine Zidane's first match in charge of Les Bleus, with captain Kylian Mbappé scoring the winner before limping off with a knee injury.
Goal and injury
On Friday, 25 September 2026, in the opening round of the UEFA Nations League, France won 1-0 away to Turkey. Captain Kylian Mbappé scored the only goal of the match in the 54th minute, converting a pass from Michael Olise — his 67th goal for France, extending his own scoring record for the national team. The celebration was short-lived: the Real Madrid forward was immediately seen limping and was substituted five minutes later.
According to the BBC, new France head coach Zinedine Zidane said after the match that the outlook was not encouraging: "Unfortunately, it doesn't look good. I think he'll have to go back," Zidane said, adding that Mbappé had swelling in the knee and that the team did not want to take any risks. The BBC reports that Mbappé has consequently been ruled out for the rest of the international window. At the time of the match, however, the Guardian's live coverage noted that the exact severity of the injury was not yet known, while stressing it could have major consequences for both Real Madrid and the French national team.
Zidane's historic start
The match marked Zidane's first official game as France head coach, having replaced Didier Deschamps after this summer's World Cup. According to Goal.com, the win made Zidane the first France manager since Aimé Jacquet in 1994 to win his opening match — Jacquet's France beat Italy 1-0 that year, with the goal scored by Zidane's then teammate Youri Djorkaeff. In between, five coaches — Roger Lemerre, Jacques Santini, Raymond Domenech, Laurent Blanc and Deschamps — all failed to win their first game in charge, drawing or losing instead. Notably, it was Jacquet who gave Zidane his own first cap for France, against the Czech Republic in 1994.
Elsewhere in the match, Olise had a curling effort saved in the first half, and goalkeeper Mike Maignan denied Turkey's İsmail Yüksek in the second. Late on, Turkey goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır was sent off after a VAR review for handling the ball outside his penalty area; he was replaced by Altay Bayındır.
Other results
Elsewhere on Matchday 1, Belgium beat Italy 2-0 in Rome, and Northern Ireland recorded their first-ever away win in Nations League history, defeating Georgia 1-0. France are next scheduled to play away to Belgium on Monday, a fixture that could be affected by Mbappé's injury.
