Mbappe’s meteoric rise from Monaco to PSG
Paris: Kylian Mbappe, at just 18 years old, is destined for greatness after joining Paris SaintGermain on Thursday following a whirlwind first full season at Monaco.
The teen sensation arrives at PSG initially on loan with an option to buy in a deal reportedly worth up to 180 million euros ($214 million), catapulting him into second in the all-time most expensive player list behind new team mate Neymar.
Born and raised in the Paris suburb of Bondy, where his father Wilfried was a coach, Mbappe returns to the French capital after embarking on a path previously trodden by former French hero Thierry Henry, another graduate of Monaco’s academy.
As a supremely gifted youngster, a glorious future for Mbappe was predicted since his early years.
He played in his home town until he was 14, splitting his time between the national training centre at Clairefontaine and school in a nearby village.
Even at this premature stage the precocious Mbappe was courting interest from Europe’s elite, but it was Monaco, in 2013, who convinced his family that the principality was the best place to continue his development.
It wasn’t easy initially as Mbappe struggled to adapt to the demands of such a lifestyle, but he quickly changed, radically overhauling his behaviour to allow his talent to shine.
In 2014, Real Madrid invited Mbappe to Madrid at the request of Zinedine Zidane, and the 15-year-old found himself pictured alongside the club’s Portuguese talisman Cristiano Ronaldo.
But Mbappe’s route to stardom was back in Monaco, where the blistering speed and fluid style of an attacker accustomed to playing on the left wing quickly seduced Leonardo Jardim. At the advice of the club’s youth coaches, he integrated Mbappe into the first team.