“This guy is on another planet, he is just different. MVP will always be Kylian, because he will put numbers no one can do, but the most important player is Michael Olise.” Thierry Henry’s line is blunt, but the case for Michael Olise is not hard to build. France have scored 13 goals in five World Cup appearances, the best total in this source set, and Olise has supplied five assists in those five games.

Thierry Henry's verdict on Olise

Henry’s quote lands because it does not deny what Kylian Mbappé is doing. Mbappe has seven goals in five World Cup appearances, and France still have the tournament’s most explosive finisher. The point is that Olise has become the player setting the rhythm around him.

Five assists in five appearances is not a side stat. It means Olise is averaging 1.0 assists per game across the tournament, and that return has turned him into the clearest creative symbol of this France side. When a team has 13 goals in five matches and one player has directly supplied five of them, influence is no longer a vague idea.

There is a temptation to reduce France’s attack to Mbappe’s numbers because they are the easiest to sell. Henry cut through that. His argument was that Mbappe remains the standout for raw output, but Olise is the most important player in the system. Based on what France have looked like in this tournament, that feels closer to the truth than a hot take.

Olise’s own explanation of why he chose France also fits the picture. Speaking to metro.co.uk, he said: “The players I followed when I was young were French: Zidane, Thierry Henry, Ribery. And I always came to France when I was young. It felt more natural.” Patrick Vieira went further, saying: “There was no question of England or anything else. He told me he had always been a supporter of the French national team. And he also explained to me that he had a better chance of becoming a world champion with Les Bleus than with England.”

That background is interesting now because Olise does not look like a supplementary piece. He looks central. BBC Sport's historical note underlines it too: he is the first player to assist five goals at one World Cup since Thomas Hassler in 1994.

France's attack now runs through shared threat

Didier Deschamps summed up the front line in five words: “They speak the same football.” It is a neat description of a team that does not attack in separate departments.

Mbappe has the seven goals. Ousmane Dembélé has four in five World Cup appearances. Bradley Barcola has added two. The distribution matters because it makes Olise harder to stop. Opponents cannot just smother one channel when France have threats arriving from multiple angles and one creator repeatedly finding the final pass.

That is why Henry’s line about importance holds up. He was not arguing that Olise is a bigger star than Mbappe. He was arguing that France’s attack currently makes the most sense with Olise as its connector, and the numbers support that view better than they support any simpler Mbappe-only reading.

Matt Law told Sports Mole: “Before the tournament I said France were the best side at the competition, and I still feel that way now.” On the evidence here, that confidence is understandable. France are the top scorers in this source set, and they are not leaning on a single forward to stay there.

Even the wider descriptions of the side point in the same direction. One coach at the tournament called France “one of the best attacking teams ever”. That kind of praise usually sounds inflated in mid-tournament, but 13 goals in five appearances gives it some substance.

Olise's rise has changed the way France are discussed

Olise has often carried a quieter profile than the bigger names around him, which is partly why this shift stands out. BBC Sport noted that he was released by Chelsea at 14 before later spells at Manchester City and Reading. He made his Reading debut in March 2019 and went on to make 73 appearances and score seven goals over three seasons.

That route does not explain his World Cup form on its own, but it does add perspective. France are no longer being framed only through Mbappe’s finishing or through Deschamps’ tournament management. Olise has moved into the middle of the conversation because he is shaping how the attack works.

There is one area where the wider coverage gets messy. Mbappe’s tournament tally has sometimes been pushed into all-time record territory elsewhere, but the verified number here is seven goals in five appearances, and that is more than enough for the point being made. France do not need inflated framing when the real output is already this strong.

The same applies to Olise. Some reports have described his assist total differently, but the settled figure here is five assists in five World Cup appearances. Pair that with France’s 13 goals in five matches and Henry’s verdict stops sounding provocative. It sounds like a fair reading of the best attack in the tournament so far, with Sweden already one of the sides punished by it.

FAQ

Why is Michael Olise being called France's most important player at the World Cup?

Thierry Henry made the case directly, saying Kylian Mbappe remains the MVP for his numbers but Michael Olise is France's most important player. The production supports it: Olise has five assists in five World Cup appearances, while France have scored 13 goals in five games as the tournament's top scorers in this source set.

How important is Michael Olise to France compared with Kylian Mbappe?

Mbappe still carries the finishing headline with seven goals in five World Cup appearances. Olise's case is different. He has supplied five assists in five appearances and has become the main connector in France's attack. Henry's view is that Mbappe is the MVP, but Olise is the most important player for the way the team functions.

Are France the best attacking team at the World Cup right now?

The evidence here is strong. France have scored 13 goals in five World Cup appearances, the highest total in this source set. Mbappe has seven, Ousmane Dembele has four and Bradley Barcola has two, which shows the attack is not built around one scorer alone.

Why did Michael Olise choose France instead of England?

Olise said France felt more natural because the players he followed when he was young were French, including Zidane, Thierry Henry and Ribery, and because he often came to France when he was younger. Patrick Vieira also said Olise believed he had a better chance of becoming a world champion with France than with England.

Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 8 outlets. How we work →