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He grew up practically inside the local football club, AS Bondy. “In the Parisian suburbs there are football fields everywhere,” he enthuses. “People here live for football. I was born with the sports ground facing my window.” It’s no wonder, he adds, that Paris’s suburbs are perhaps the deepest talent pool in global football, producing players such as Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, N’Golo Kanté and Riyad Mahrez. A fan gives you enormous love,” says Mbappé carefully, “but sometimes maybe an excess of love, and he might not respect your intimacy. We give our lives to the people, because we give them pleasure every three days, and we give them our time. It’s impossible to hope for a normal life, but just a little respect for one’s private life isn’t too much to ask for, I think.” That run continued the following Saturday when PSG went to Reims in Ligue 1 and drew 0-0. Mbappe started the game but Lionel Messi missed out because of injury and Neymar was given a breather on the bench. He struggled to have an influence on the game and was booked in the closing stages for making a petulant foul. Mbappe started on the bench as PSG beat Nice 2-1 last Saturday, with Hugo Ekitike getting the nod up front, but he scored after replacing the Reims-owned man to seal the victory.
The following week was more of a slog against Monaco, his former club and one that he has had a good deal of success against in the past. But despite several good efforts on goal, the best he could manage was a shot against the post when he should have scored. As a young man of non-white origins, he has a particular vulnerability with the French public, one-third of whom voted for the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the run-off of the presidential elections in 2017. Even so, he has begun to speak out against police violence. I took time to start talking about it, because I wasn’t ready,” he admits. “I had a lot of things to digest: my change of status, my new life. But I have always opposed all types of violence.” He sat out the Coupe de France win against Chateauroux and the Ligue 1 clash against Angers and came on as a second-half sub in the 1-0 defeat at Rennes. And he finished the Champions League group stages as top scorer in the competition on seven goals by finding the net again versus Juventus on matchday six in a 2-1 win. He also got the assist for Nuno Mendes' winner.There was evidence of a hangover from that loss in PSG's following match against Brest at the weekend, and indeed they would have dropped points had it not been for the striker. In the final minute of the match, he latched onto a pass from Lionel Messi, sped clear of the defence and rounded the goalkeeper to tap into an empty net. It was a finish that gave PSG a 2-1 win on what had promised to be a frustrating evening. Half of Bondy gathered in front of a giant screen to cheer on the commune’s own “Kylian national”. Scoring in France’s 4–2 victory, he seemed to have reached his career apogee aged 19. He didn’t see it like that. Interviewed the night of the final, he described winning the World Cup as “already good” but only a start. It would have been easy for Mbappé to ease up in these matches. He will have been frustrated by PSG’s elimination from the Champions League (and Coupe de France) but, rather than let up on the throttle, he instead showed all the more determination to succeed with his country, a firm riposte to anyone who thought Adrien Rabiot or Griezmann might have been a better choice to take the armband from Lloris. While PSG suffered huge disappointment against Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16, Mbappe did score in the 1-0 win in the home leg. Winning the World Cup made Mbappé a national hero. Does he consider himself a star? “I think so. If your face is everywhere in the city, everywhere in the world, that’s for sure. Being a star is a status, but it doesn’t make me a better person than others.”
Kylian Mbappé was 18 when he walked into the changing room of the French national team. “It’s very difficult,” he recalls, “because great players don’t want to give you their place. That’s what makes them great players. They especially don’t want to give you their place if you arrive with the label of ‘Future Great Player’.” Within a year, Mbappé and France had won the World Cup in Moscow. Mbappe added another two goals in the Champions League on Tuesday, as well as laying on an assist for Lionel Messi, as PSG roared past Maccabi Haifa 7-2. His scoring streak was extended to three games in the following weekend as they bagged what proved to be PSG's winner from the penalty spot in a thrilling 4-3 home success over Troyes. Mbappé’s parents made him take school seriously, and he was also a not-very-talented flautist at Bondy’s conservatory, but football came first. At AS Bondy, he says, “My father was my coach for 10 years. He helped construct the style of player I wanted to become. But I never felt the pressure of, ‘You have to become a footballer.’ Above all, it was a passion.” Likely to be a candidate for European Golden Shoe and Ballon d’Or glory, Mbappe’s performances should be closely watched this year. In high-level football, nobody will make a place for you. Ego, self-love, isn’t just the caprice of stars. It’s also the will to give the best of yourselfMbappe was seen on the stands alongside new signing Ousmane Dembele as their teammates struggled in the first match of their Ligue 1 title defence. The match ended in a 0-0 draw, and just hours later, the tide appears to have turned for Mbappe. A sudden change of heart His scoring run continued against Ajaccio a week later as he bagged a pair of second-half goals as PSG won in a 5-0 romp. The former Monaco man's first was a scrappy goal from inside the box, yet the second could barely have been any different as he scored a stunning volley that underlined his qualities and sent the Corsican side into Ligue 2. As a pair, however, they look to be finding their feet, even if Deschamps offered a reminder that they still had “room for improvement”. Despite those cautious words, the fact he deployed them again in Ireland shows the faith he has in them – and he also can also look forward to the return from injury of William Saliba and Wesley Fofana. Deschamps will want to construct a team with a strong foundation to maintain consistency and build confidence. Their two wins this week suggest they are well on their way and will continue to be contenders. Kylian Mbappé will be available for next Paris Saint-Germain game and he’s now part of Luis Enrique team 🔴🔵 #PSG
He subsequently missed the win over Montpellier, the Coupe de France defeat to Marseille and the loss to Monaco in Ligue 1. Mbappe drew another blank against Nice the following week, but Lionel Messi bagged a goal and an assist as they beat Nice 2-0. PSG are said to have offered Mbappe a revised one-year deal which includes a guaranteed sale clause. This basically means that they will let him leave next summer if he wishes, but instead of leaving on a free transfer, the move will have to include a transfer fee due to his extension until 2025. It remains to be seen if some version of this contract has been signed. Likewise, football fans are wondering how Real Madrid will react if they will be forced to pay a transfer fee after being led to believe that the player will be available for free in a year's time. Kids in performance-sports families learn that they never arrive. Each step up is just another learning opportunity. In Monaco’s first team, the teenaged Mbappé encountered the veteran Colombian striker Radamel Falcao, freshly returned from unhappy loan spells with Manchester United and Chelsea. He was a star,” says Mbappé, “but he had a desire to transmit. He was like a teacher to me. He’s someone who always wants to score, but he left me the space to express myself. He’s very cool in front of goal, calm in his game, and he transmitted this serenity that I didn’t have, because I was young, excited and wanted to go at 2,000 kilometres an hour.”Mbappe scored twice against Auxerre to take PSG to the brink of the Ligue 1 title then produced the assist that sealed the silverware the following week as he fashioned a chance for Messi to score in a 1-1 draw with Strasbourg. Mbappé says, “When you’re in the World Cup final, you’re convinced that you’re going to win. Even the Croats were convinced they were going to win. You walk onto the field and the trophy is there, between the two teams, and you tell yourself it’s impossible that the other team will take it. That’s why there’s such disappointment afterwards if you don’t win.” He then netted again at Santiago Bernabeu to put them 2-0 up on aggregate, though that lead was surrendered due to Karim Benzema’s last-gasp heroics for Madrid. The nearer the match came, the less stressed I was’: Paul Pogba, left, and Mbappé celebrate winning the World Cup for France by defeating Croatia 4–2 in the final on 15 July 2018, in Moscow. Mbappé, aged 19 at the time, scored the fourth goal for Les Bleus David Ramos - FIFA // Getty Images
His parents grew up in Bondy: Wilfried, of Cameroonian origin, and Mbappé’s mother Fayza, of Algerian descent. Mixed marriages are common in the Parisian suburbs, the banlieues, but the couple did have to defy some local disapproval. The Mbappés sifted the countless offers and chose Monaco, where the route to the first team looked shortest. Mbappé arrived there, he says, “with my [footballing] baggage well filled.” Mbappe scored his first goal of 2023 in a friendly match against Riyadh All-Star XI, dispatching a 60th minute penalty as PSG ran out 5-4 winners despite Juan Bernat's first-half red card. The goal won't count towards Mbappe's statistics, however, as it wasn't a competitive match. He finished on a career-best tally of 29 Ligue 1 goals after netting a penalty in a 3-2 loss against Clermont on the final day of the season. He might have hit 30 for the first time but tried to set up Lionel Messi for a goodbye goal - the Argentine missed a simple chance. He lives like a luxury prisoner, who cannot leave home without being mobbed. “It takes an organisation just to go out,” he says. He has joked that when his future children ask him about his youthful adventures, he won’t have any.
Kylian Mbappe: 2022-23 PSG stats
French fans like their stars humble. Mbappé has explained “the French mentality” to Neymar, who favours a bling-bling, poker-playing party lifestyle. Mbappé says, “In Brazil, they are more festive, in France more serious. Here it’s not considered good to display your passions. People will think he’s neglecting PSG because he plays poker. I think he has begun to understand that. At first it was hard for him because he experienced it as an affront. When he arrived, they put his face on the Eiffel Tower, and six months later they’re asking him why he’s playing poker. In France, people know what you have but they don’t want to see it. They just want to see you playing football, smiling.” An 18-year-old Kylian Mbappé after scoring for Monaco against Manchester City in the Champions League. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
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