MBAPPE’S SPEED WILL KILL YOU
Lloris hails teenage superstar’s fast show
KyLIAN MBAPPE has a new squad nickname to show for the mesmerising performance that propelled him into the global spotlight and took France into a World Cup quarter- final at Argentina’s expense.
The French players are calling him ‘ 37’ after TV graphics clocked a top speed of 37kmh (a fraction less than 23mph) in his searing sprint beyond Javier Mascherano and Marcos Rojo, which secured a penalty to send them on their way.
While FIFA’s official statistics show that Mbappe was actually running at 32.4kmh, it doesn’t sound like a name that will stick anyway. Though it’s a necessary upgrade on ‘Kiki’, the affectionate term of endearment coined by Antoine Griezmann. Mbappe has demonstrated that he is no longer the kid brother of the team.
The French media was busy consulting sprint specialists yesterday for an understanding of how the player can find speeds like he did with the ball at his feet. Stephane Caristan, the nation’s 110m European hurdles champion, said Mbappe’s pelvic position was a significant factor.
The teenager’s team-mates are nowhere near as breathless about what they saw in the Kazan Arena on Saturday, including two ice-cold finishes in eight second-half minutes.
Asked in the aftermath if Mbappe’s acceleration past the Argentinians had surprised him, French captain Hugo Lloris blew out his cheeks and laughed. ‘No, I’m not surprised,’ he said. ‘I see it every day. His natural strength is his speed. If he has space he can kill teams.’
Mbappe might have become a Chelsea player eight years ago. Nurtured by his Cameroonian father Wilfried at the small Bondy club he helps run in the Paris suburbs, he was invited to a week-long trial in west London as an 11-year-old.
But he failed to score in a team which annihilated Charlton Athletic and signed for Monaco, as a 14-year-old, instead.
It was the 26 goals he scored as the club won their first league title in 17 years last summer which marked him out. That saw Paris Saint-Germain take him on loan for one season with a £ 143million option to buy, which they will now want to exercise. It was the
club’s way of avoiding a breach of FFP rules, having already paid out £198million for Neymar.
The wise heads in French football are trying to keep a lid on Mbappe-mania. ‘He has to take things step by step, like all young players,’ Lloris said. ‘I have the same problem at Tottenham when I talk about young players like Harry Kane and Dele Alli. They all have huge potential.’ But Lloris did not reject the idea that Mbappe might ultimately be a Ballon d’Or winner just like the departing Lionel Messi.
Uruguay, France’s opponents in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday afternoon, will certainly provide a far tougher challenge and it will be his agility on the ball and finishing prowess that will provide a deeper indication of his class. Teenage pace to burn like that is, sadly, not permanent.
His demeanour suggests a sense of perspective. He is one of the more thoughtful players, evidently fascinated by the country of his father’s birth and football’s potential as a force for good there. In February he met France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, at the Elysee Palace to discuss the development of sport in Africa.
‘He was quiet, serene, after the match,’ his team-mate Florian Thauvin said yesterday. ‘I did not see any change in his behaviour.’
But for now, the tournament simply awaits the next demonstration of what he has to offer. He is the second youngest player, after Pele, to score at least two goals in a World Cup knockout match. The Brazilian, who scored a hat- trick in the semi- finals against France in 1958, has offered his congratulations.
Brazil and France could meet in the last four and Mbappe does not seem cowed by the opportunity to present himself as a worldclass player. ‘Of course (I relish it),’ he said on Saturday. ‘It’s an opportunity to show what you can do and what your abilities are. There’s no better place than a World Cup.’