After Kylian Mbappé suffered a broken nose in France’s 1-0 win over Austria in the Euro 2024 opener, he has been forced to wear a mask to protect his nose as he attempts to get back in form for his team’s group stage finale against Poland on Tuesday (12 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App).
Mbappé, who has not seen game action since his injury (he was an unused substitution in France’s scoreless draw with the Netherlands on Friday), was seen wearing a protective mask with France’s colors in training though UEFA will likely force him to wear a black mask when the new Real Madrid star does return to the pitch in Germany.
But that isn’t stopping one Polish company from offering another solution.
In response to the France captain’s social media post soliciting ideas for masks, fans were quick to propose the idea of Mbappé wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask, replying with photos of the French star wearing such a mask in 2018. The mask was a birthday gift from then-teammate Thiago Silva, who surprised Mbappé by wrapping the mask in a Dior box. Mbappé embodied his inner Ninja Turtle, wearing the mask around the locker room while doing his famed goal celebration crossed-arms pose.
It was a gag gift that Mbappé went along with as Silva and others famously compared the then-teenage soccer prodigy to Teenage Ninja Turtles member Donatello during the early days of Mbappé’s career at PSG.
In reference to the joke, Polish company Marcin Bułka has created a custom pitch-ready Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask for Mbappé and is planning to deliver it to him before or after the game. The owner of the company believes this mask will be the best fit for Mbappé.
[Related: Clint Dempsey has advice for Kylian Mbappé on how to play with a mask: Don’t]
“I think his masks don’t fit properly to the face and don’t protect him enough,” Owner of the mask company, Mateusz Pawlik, told reporter Szymon Janczyk. “We can do it better, we have the highest quality certifications. We use motorsport carbon and bulletproof vest material to absorb the impact energy.”
It may be unlikely Mbappé will don the mask. But France fans will likely get the closest thing their national team has to a superhero back on the pitch, as Mbappé is reportedly improving ahead of Tuesday’s pivotal match with Poland.
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