'He doesn’t know enough about football': Martinez slams Mbappe over comments on South American teams

Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez blasted France star Kylian Mbappe over his claims that European football is more advanced than South American football ahead of the World Cup final. Seven months after Mbappe claimed that South American football was 'less advanced' than in Europe, Argentina will take on France in the World Cup final for a place in history.

"The advantage we have in Europe is that we play among ourselves with high-level matches all the time, such as the Nations League, for example," Mbappe had said.

"When we arrive at the World Cup, we are ready, whereas Brazil and Argentina do not have this level in South America. Football is not as advanced as in Europe. That's why at the last World Cups, it's always the Europeans who win."

"He doesn't know enough about football," Martinez said bluntly when asked about Mbappe's words.

"He never played in South America. When you don't have this experience, it may be better not to talk about it. But it doesn't matter. We are a great team, recognised as such."

Martinez isn't the first Argentine to disagree with Mbappe's assessment, with Lionel Messi citing the geographical challenges of playing in South America as evidence of their difficulties.

"Many times we talked about that in Spain," Messi told TyC Sports earlier this year.

"When we returned from a qualifier, we told them: 'You don't know how difficult it would be for you to qualify for the World Cup if you had to go there, at altitude, in the heat, in Venezuela'."

In reality, the qualifying process in South America is vastly different from that in Europe. CONMEBOL's ten member countries compete for four automatic spots and one playoff spot.

While 55 European countries compete in 10 groups for 13 World Cup spots. Argentina will attempt to win their third world title on Sunday, while France will attempt to defend their 2018 title.