Kylian Mbappe
Kylian Mbappé Lottin (French pronunciation: [kiljan (ɛ)mbape lɔtɛ̃]; born 20 December 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team. He is considered the world's most expensive player from a transfer value perspective by the CIES.
Mbappé came into prominence at an early age, starring for the youth academy at Bondy before gaining a move to Monaco, where he made his professional debut in 2015, aged 16. Mbappé then quickly established himself as a regular goalscorer for the first team in the 2016–17 season, as he helped the club gain their first Ligue 1 title in seventeen years. A year later, he transferred to Paris Saint-Germain for €180 million, making him the most expensive teenager, and the world's second-most expensive player.[4] In his debut season in the French capital, Mbappé featured heavily as the club captured a domestic treble of Ligue 1, Coupe de France, and Coupe de la Ligue.
Mbappé made his senior debut for France in 2017. At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Mbappé became the youngest French player to score at a World Cup,[5] and became the second teenager, after Pelé, to score in a World Cup Final. He finished as the joint second-highest goalscorer as France won the tournament, and received the Best Young Player Award for his performances.[6][7]
Mbappé was born in Paris, France.[3] His father, Wilfried Mbappé, is from Cameroon, and, as well as being his agent, is a football coach, while his mother, Fayza Lamari, is of Algerian origin and is a former handballplayer.[8][9] He has a younger brother, Ethan Mbappé, who plays for PSG under-12s.[10][11] His adoptive brother, Jirès Kembo Ekoko, is also a professional football player.[12] Growing up, his idol was Cristiano Ronaldo, a player he looked to emulate.[13][14]
"He had technique and vision in the game that most children just don't have. He's got eyes in the back of his head. He knows how to anticipate where the ball will go. Here, he never played for his proper age group, he always played with older children because there was no point leaving him with kids his own age."
—Atmane Airouche, president of AS Bondy, on Mbappé as a child.[9]
Mbappé began his career at AS Bondy, coached by his father, Wilfried. Another of his youth coaches at AS Bondy, Antonio Riccardi, stated,
Eventually he moved to the Clairefontaine academy, putting on a host of impressive performances leading to numerous French clubs, and Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Bayern Munich, attempting to sign him.[9] Mbappé travelled to London for a trial with Chelsea when he was 11, playing a match for their youth team against Charlton Athletic.[16] He ultimately settled on Monaco.[17]
Mbappé made his first team debut on 2 December 2015 in a 1–1 Ligue 1 home draw against SM Caen, replacing Fábio Coentrão after 88 minutes. He therefore became Monaco's youngest-ever first-team player aged 16 years 347 days and breaking Thierry Henry's record set 21 years previously.[17][18]
On 20 February 2016, Mbappé scored his first goal for the club's first team, a stoppage-time goal in a home Ligue 1 3–1 win over Troyes; at the age of 17 years and 62 days, he became the youngest first team goalscorer in Monaco's history—once again displacing Henry in the process.[19][20] On 6 March 2016, Mbappé signed his first professional contract, a three-year deal, tying him to Monaco until June 2019.[21] In an interview with CNN, Vadim Vasilyev, AS Monaco's vice-president, who played a key role in Mbappé signing his first professional contract with the Ligue 1 club, stated that he knew early on that Mbappé was a "phenomenon."[22]
Mbappé scored the first hat-trick of his first team career on 14 December 2016 in the 7–0 rout of Stade Rennais in the Coupe de la Ligue round of 16 at the Stade Louis II[18][23] – the first hat-trick scored by any Monaco player in the competition since Sonny Anderson in 1997.[24]
On 11 February 2017, Mbappé scored the first Ligue 1 hat-trick of his career in the 5–0 home win over Metz; at 18 years and two months he became the youngest player to score a Ligue 1 hat-trick since Jérémy Ménez did it for FC Sochaux-Montbéliard back in 2005.[25]
On 21 February, Mbappé scored Monaco's second goal in the 40th minute with a half-volley after receiving Fabinho's long ball over the opponents' back line (it was his first ever UEFA Europa League or UEFA Champions League goal and he became the second youngest French scorer in UEFA Champions League history behind Karim Benzema) in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg match against Manchester City, which Monaco lost 5–3.[26][27] On 5 March, Mbappé scored two first-half goals in the 4–0 Ligue 1 home win over FC Nantes to bring his Ligue 1 career tally to ten goals and become the youngest player in the last 30 years to hit the Ligue 1/Division 1 ten-career-goals mark. His brace against Nantes on 5 March brought up his 2016–2017 season tally to nine Ligue 1 goals and five Ligue 1 assists in just 822 minutes of Ligue 1 football.[28][29] On 11 March, he scored a goal in the 2–1 Ligue 1 home win against FC Girondins de Bordeauxto register his seventh Ligue 1 goal in his last four starts.[30]
In the UEFA Champions League round of 16-second leg match at the Stade Louis II on 15 March, he made the score 1–0 for Monaco in the 8th minute by turning home Bernardo Silva's low cross from close-range (his 11th goal in his past 11 matches in all competitions) to help Monaco beat Manchester City 3–1 (aggregate score 6–6) and advance to the quarter-finals on the away goals rule.[31] In the quarter-finals against Borussia Dortmund, Mbappé won a penalty and scored two goals as Monaco won the away leg 3–2.[32] In the second leg, Mbappé opened the scoring as Monaco won 3–1 and advanced to the semi-finals.[33] Monaco were eliminated from the Champions League 4–1 on aggregate by Juventus, with Mbappé scoring Monaco's lone goal in the second leg.[34] Mbappé ended the 2016–17 season with 26 goals from 44 matches in all competitions as Monaco won the Ligue 1 title.[35]
On 31 August 2017, Paris Saint-Germain announced the signing of Mbappé from Monaco on loan.[37] The fee required for a subsequent full transfer was set at a rumoured €145 million plus €35 million in add-ons, making him the most expensive teenager ever, and potentially the second most expensive player ever, behind teammate Neymar.[38][39][40][41] He was handed the number 29 shirt upon arrival in the French capital.[36]
He scored on his debut on 8 September in a 5–1 Ligue 1 win at Metz, in which Benoît Assou-Ekotto was sent off for fouling him.[42] Four days later, Mbappé recorded his first European goal for Les Parisiens in a 5–0 UEFA Champions League group stage away defeat of Celtic.[43] He starred in PSG's 3–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the second group game of the Champions League, setting up goals for Edinson Cavani and Neymar, the latter seeing him taking out a defender with a feint by rolling the ball under his foot.[44] On 6 December, Mbappé scored his 10th Champions League goal in a 3–1 defeat to Bayern Munich and became the youngest player to reach that mark at the age of 18 years and 11 months.[45]Having won his first league title with the club, on 8 May 2018, Mbappé played as PSG won 2–0 against Les Herbiers VF to clinch the 2017–18 Coupe de France.[46]
In July 2018, Mbappé was given the number 7 jersey for the upcoming season with PSG, taking up the squad number vacated by Lucas Moura.[47] Sporting the hashtag #K7LIAN, Mbappé stated, "I keep trying to progress on the pitch and I think that, for me, it was the right time to change number. It is something of an affirmation. The No. 7 shirt is a legendary one and many greats have worn it. I hope that I will be able to do this number justice on the pitch."[47]
In his first appearance of the season, Mbappé scored twice in the last 10 minutes as PSG won 3–1 against Guingamp in Ligue 1.[48] In the following league game, the front three of Mbappé, Cavani and Neymar all scored in a 3–1 win over Angers at home, with Mbappé – starting his first game of the season – scoring from a volley and setting up Neymar to score the third.[49] On 1 September, he scored and assisted in a 4–2 away win over Nîmes, but was sent off for the first time in his career with a straight red card in injury time, after shoving Téji Savanier in retaliation for a late challenge from behind, for which Savanier was also sent off.[50] Regarding his sending-off, Mbappé told reporters after the match, "If I had the chance to do it over again, I would do the same thing. I will apologise to the supporters and everybody, but I cannot tolerate this sort of thing."[51] On 8 October, Mbappé scored four goals in just 13 minutes in a 5–0 home victory over Lyon and became the youngest player (19 years and 9 months) to score four goals in one game in Ligue 1 over the last 45 seasons.[52] On 3 December, Mbappé was the inaugural winner of the Kopa Trophy, which is awarded by France Football to the best player in the world under the age of 21.[53] On 19 January 2019, Mbappé was one of two players (the other being Cavani) to score a hat-trick in a 9–0 win over Guingamp, breaking a record PSG set the previous season.[54]
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