Henry sympathizes with Mbappe's grievances but says he needs to be a team player

Former French striker and current CBS Sports commentator Thierry Henry reacted to rumors that Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe wants to leave the club.

He questioned the club in the French capital's methods of convincing Mbappe to stay after a summer full of speculation that he'd move to Real Madrid.

Mbappe was supposedly promised that he'd have more freedom to play on the wings - which hasn't been fully realized in his time and has led to his possible unhappiness.

Henry noticed that Mbappe isn't happy with the current position that he's in - and sympathizes with him - but feels the young star should continue to play there for the good of the team.

'We know he doesn't like it and I think like I was saying, nobody likes to be exposed to what you're not good at. You just don't like it, but there is something that's bigger than everyone else and that's the club,' Henry told the CBS panel after PSG's 1-1 draw with Benfica.

'But, did they make him feel that the club was the most important thing or did they make him feel that he was more important than the club? And I think at one point for me - and I will use my own stories... I didn't like to play high and wide at Barcelona. I hated it! But, I had to do it for the team.

'I didn't hear anyone saying, "oh what a nice gesture to go play on the left"... But at one point I always remember, there's only one rule: the boss is asking you to do something, you do it for the good of the team. And your team is winning. If your team is losing, I would understand your argument.'

Henry also asked CBS reporter Julien Laurens - a French football reporter - for his insight into why this may be happening and what can be done about it.

'Do you think that for the first time he's in a position where he's a bit exposed in terms of what he doesn't like to do in the game?,' Henry asked.

'I think you're right and that's at the heart of the problem. I think there's a lot of people around the club and within the team even who say, "come on this is not Stoke City's Tony Pulis", they're not hoofing the ball at you and you play on your own up there and then you never get the ball,' Laurens replied.

'He's scored more goals at this stage this season than last season. He's got Messi and Neymar behind him he's got a system that he's also made with wingbacks to suit him and to create chances for him. And yet, you're right, he's not happy. I think the lack of sympathy from some of the fans is exactly that point - its like "surely you should be happy with what you have".

His point of view is very much "this is not my best position I can play there and I do well there but I would rather play off a striker with more freedom like Neymar and Messi have behind me." And he said that he was promised in the summer that they would sign a no. 9.

'They try [to get] Lewandowski, he only wanted Barcelona. They try Scamacca, couldn't find an agreement with Sassuolo. They sign a young [Hugo] Ekitike who is good, but not ready. So, he has to play there like you said... and maybe he should be happy with that, I don't know. But certainly, the feeling he has right now is that the promises were not kept and he's made his mind up and he wants to go.'