Scene as global star but stays grounded

Stories attempting to link Mbappe to Real Madrid or Manchester City are wide of the mark. One only has to look at the relationship between City’s Abu Dhabi owners and PSG’S Qatari owners to know that City is a non-starter, and while he may eventually end up at Real, that is one for the future. He turned them down last year.

Mbappe will stay at PSG – not least because he is happy, it is where he wants to be and he knows that time is on his side. He also realises clubs will come calling, having already rejected Real, City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Arsenal and so on. Joining PSG was to “come home”, he said, when he moved to the team he supports, and there is an indication of the kind of person he is and what motivates him in the fact that the day he signed, he travelled to another engagement back at AS Bondy, the local club where it all started when he was six.

Mbappe has maintained his links, not least because his father, originally from Cameroon, still coaches there. The striker is a regular visitor. That day, he was greeted with a new slogan relating to him and to the area – “where everything is possible”. I was with him that day, having been invited to conduct his first newspaper interview since his move to PSG, and as he answered my questions, it was clear that he was grounded, motivated and had a plan. Mbappe was also aware of what was going on – and intrigued by the interest – and was not remotely overawed as others might have been. He was immaculately turned out in a dark suit, white shirt and tie and almost looked like a young film star or business entrepreneur closing a deal on his next venture.

Hence the quote about the “Mbappe soap opera”. “I am aware of the risk with all the media attention, all the glitz and glamour around football,” Mbappe told me. “That was the only piece of advice my father gave me about my future – to stay myself. I know where I come from.” It made returning to Paris all the more understandable.

I have met him since, on three other occasions, and he even climbed down from the PSG team coach after they played Celtic in the Champions League in Glasgow last autumn to say hello. His only mistake so far in his career was a bleach-blond hair experiment which he soon ditched after being teased by his team-mates.

Mbappe’s sense of perspective and understanding was evident after the win over Argentina, who he had torn apart with his pace and skill, scoring two goals and announcing himself as a world star.

It was Arsene Wenger, when he was Arsenal manager, who compared Mbappe to Pele and attempted to sign him. The pair met, but the offer was declined.

The Pele comparison was made again – along with one likening him to the Brazilian Ronaldo – in the press conference after Mbappe was handed his man-of-the-match award for knocking out Argentina, not least because the Frenchman had become the first teenager to score two goals in a game at a World Cup since Pele in 1958. “Let’s put things into context. Pele is another category,” Mbappe said.

It has been an incredible rise, a remarkable story. Two seasons ago, Mbappe was still being driven to training by his mother, Fayza, and he has not forgotten that or the fact that the last campaign was his first full one as a professional footballer.

There was another quote during his interview with me that sums up his approach.

“Where will I be?” Mbappe said, considering what he could eventually achieve. “That is the source of my motivation.”

The soap opera is only going to get bigger and bigger, especially if Mbappe continues to star at a World Cup where Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have already departed and there is room for a new hero. There is no limit to what he can achieve – and not least because he is so grounded.

‘I am aware of the risk with all the attention, all the glitz and glamour around football’