The Story of Kylian Mbappé

Kylian Mbappé Lottin was born on the 20th of December 1998, 6 months after France had conquered the world at the 1998 World Cup. Mbappé was born in Paris, France to parents Wilfried Mbappé, from Cameroon & Fayza Lamari Mbappé from Algeria.

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Kylian Mbappé and his family lived just outside of Paris in Bondy, known for its large, working-class, non-white communities, synonymous with riots and social strife, thought of as breeding grounds for crime where he began playing football at age 6, under Antonio Riccardi. 

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‘The first time I coached him was when he was six years old. You could tell he was different. Kylian could do much more than the other children. His dribbling was already fantastic and he was much faster than the others. He was the best player I've ever seen in 15 years coaching here. In Paris, there are many talents but I'd never seen a talent like him. He was what we call a 'crack' (the best).’ 

After impressing at AS Bondy, Mbappé moved to the Clairefontaine academy - an academy for the best young players in France, The academy is one of thirteen élite academies located in and around France that are supervised by the French Football Federation (FFF) and has produced the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Olivier Giroud, Blaise Matuidi, & Thierry Henry. 

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Whilst at the academy, Mbappé was drawing attention from some of the biggest clubs in the world with; Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Bayern Munich all attempting to sign the youngster and by age 11 had been invited to train with Real Madrid. 

3 years later he travelled to London to play a match with Chelsea’s youth team but ultimately settled at AS Monaco for the 2015/16 season, with them presenting a clear path for Mbappé into the first team. 

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Kylian started in Monaco’s b-team but was promoted to the main squad within just 3 weeks and made his first team debut in December 2 months later against Caen at age 16, becoming Monaco’s youngest ever first-team player, beating the record previously set by Thierry Henry. 

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In February, Mbappé scored his first goal for Monaco, becoming the club’s youngest ever goal scorer, again beating out Thierry Henry. A month later in March he signed his first professional contract at Monaco, keeping him at the club for a further 3 years. 

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Mbappé continued to impress in his second season at Monaco, scoring his first hattrick in December 2016 in the French domestic cup, the Coupe de la Ligue, becoming the first Monaco player to score a hattrick in the competition since 1997. A few months later in February Mbappé scored his first-ever Ligue 1 hat-trick, the youngest player to score a Ligue 1 hat-trick since Jeremy Menez in 2005. 

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A few weeks later, Mbappé became the 2nd youngest French player in history to score in the UEFA Champions League, behind Karim Benzema and in March, Mbappé scored two first-half goals in the 4–0 Ligue 1 home win over 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. 

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Mbappé went on to score 26 goals in the 2016/17 season and won the Ligue 1 title at just 18 years of age. 

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At the start of the 2017/18 season, Mbappé signed for PSG on loan with an obligation to buy which was exercised later that year at €180 million. PSG faced tough competition for the 19 year-olds signature, fighting off Real Madrid with the promise of first-team football. 

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Mbappé scored on his Ligue 1 debut in Paris, and then 4 days later on his Champions League debut for PSG. 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. 

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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. 

In France’s 2018 World Cup campaign, Mbappé became the nations youngest ever Goalscorer in World Cup history with a strike against Peru. He was also the 2nd ever teenager to score two goals in a match at the World Cup since Pele in 1958 in a 4-3 win over Argentina. 

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On the 15th of July Mbappé scored in the World Cup final, also becoming the 2nd teenager to do so since Pele. France won 4-2 over Croatia with Mbappé being named the young player of the tournament, conquering the world at 19. 

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The next season Mbappé would go on to announce himself as one of the best players in the world, winning the league again with PSG, winning the golden boot with 33 league goals and was the Ligue 1 player of the year. He also became the youngest player in nearly 50 years to score 4 goals in one game, which he did against Lyon in just 13 minutes. 

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In 19/20 he became the youngest player ever to score 15 goals in the Champions League at 20 years and 306 days and won back to back Ligue 1 golden boots. PSG won the league again and completed a domestic treble, winning the Coupe de France and the Coupe de la Ligue. 

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Mbappé continued to break records in 20/21, scoring his 100th goal for PSG, only the fifth player to do that in history and became the youngest player ever to score 20 goals in the Champions League. Mbappé also became just the third player in history to score a hat-trick against Barcelona in the Champions League. 

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Mbappé won his 3rd consecutive Ligue 1 Golden Boot award with 27 goals for the season which had not been done since Jean-Pierre Papin in the early 90s. 

It had all been smooth sailing for Kylian up until Euro 2020. He scored against Germany in the group stages though it was ruled offside. France drew 3-3 with Switzerland after extra-time, with the match going to penalties, Mbappé missed the decisive spot-kick handing Switzerland the win, failing to score across the whole tournament. 

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Kylian has seemingly bounced back from the Euros disappointment, scoring the winning penalty in the recent Nations League triumph for France and starting the season well for PSG. 

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