Kylian Mbappe and Robert Lewandowski have expressed concerns about the lack of rest footballers will get if plans for a biennial World Cup come to fruition.

“We like to play, but it’s too much,” Mbappe said in Dubai, where he was named men’s player of the year at the Globe Soccer Awards on Monday. “If people want to see quality, we have to take a break. Playing the World Cup every two years would make this competition ‘normal’, and that shouldn’t be the case.”

FIFA’s proposal to host the tournament every two years instead of four has been met with scepticism.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Mbappe suggested that the quality of the spectacle would suffer if FIFA did not take players’ health into account.

Bayern Munich striker Lewandowski echoed the France international’s sentiments, stating that the schedule is already congested even without the added burden of an increased number of World Cups.

“We have a lot of games in the year, very dense weeks,” Lewandowski said at the same event. “If you want to give the fans something different, you need a break. We have to look into the future. If we want to play a World Cup every two years, the level will drop.”

Lewandoski added that it was “impossible for the body and the mind to perform at the same level.”

(dpa/NAN)