Kylian Mbappe burst out laughing and Galtier responded with a joke when asked about PSG's private jet trip Nantes. Aurelien Meunier - PSG/PSG via Getty Images
Paris Saint-Germain head coach Christophe Galtier and striker Kylian Mbappe faced backlash on Tuesday for laughing off a question about why the team took a private jet for a short trip to a game in Nantes last weekend.
Mbappe burst out laughing and Galtier responded with a joke when asked at a news conference on Monday why PSG travelled by plane to Nantes, where they claimed a comfortable 3-0 victory.
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"This morning we talked about it with the company which organises our trips and we're looking into travelling on sand yachts," Galtier said, while Mbappe refused to comment further on the matter.
A video of their comments went viral, triggering angry responses from social media users, environmentalists and French politicians.
"Are you serious, responding like this???," Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted. "Wake up guys???"
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire told French broadcaster BFM TV on Tuesday: "I love Mbappe, we can all have the giggles at the least opportune moment and it really was the least opportune moment."
"But we all have to take climate change seriously," he said, adding that Galtier's irony had been "out of place."
PSG were not immediately available for comment.
Nantes can be reached from Paris via a tour-hour train journey.
The use of private jets has been a much discussed topic both in France and globally this summer, with social media users tracking -- and criticising -- their use amid a series of heatwaves, droughts and floods triggered by climate change.
President Emmanuel Macron on Monday told a news conference that "everyone has to do their bit" to fight climate change.
Source: espn.co.uk