Kylian Mbappé

Biography

Kylian Mbappé 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. 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.

Personal Life

Kylian Mbappe is yet to be married. Mbappe is focused on his career with little time to spare for his love life. He prefers to keep his personal life far from the media and audiences.

Club career

Early career

Mbappé began his career at AS Bondy, coached by his father, Wilfried. Another of his youth coaches at AS Bondy, Antonio Riccardi, stated,

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).

Eventually, he moved to the 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. Mbappé travelled to London for a trial with Chelsea when he was 11, playing a match for their youth team against Charlton Athletic. He ultimately settled on Monaco.

Monaco

2015–16: Development

Mbappé made his first team debut on 2 December 2015 in a 1–1 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.

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. On 6 March 2016, Mbappé signed his first professional contract, a three-year deal, tying him to Monaco until June 2019. 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.”

2016–17: Breakthrough and league title

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 – the first hat-trick scored by any Monaco player in the competition since Sonny Anderson in 1997.

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.

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. 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 tally to nine Ligue 1 goals and five Ligue 1 assists in just 822 minutes of Ligue 1 football. On 11 March, he scored a goal in the 2–1 Ligue 1 home win against FC Girondins de Bordeaux to register his seventh Ligue 1 goal in his last four starts.

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. In the quarter-finals against Borussia Dortmund, Mbappé won a penalty and scored two goals as Monaco won the away leg 3–2. In the second leg, Mbappé opened the scoring as Monaco won 3–1 and advanced to the semi-finals. Monaco were eliminated from the Champions League 4–1 on aggregate by Juventus, with Mbappé scoring Monaco’s lone goal in the second leg. Mbappé ended the 2016–17 season with 26 goals from 44 matches in all competitions as Monaco won the Ligue 1 title.

Paris Saint-Germain

2017–19: Collective and individual success

On 31 August 2017, Paris Saint-Germain announced the signing of Mbappé from Monaco on . 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, the most expensive transfer ever within a domestic league, and potentially the second most expensive player ever, behind teammate Neymar. He was handed the number 29 shirt upon arrival in the French capital.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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 July 2018, Mbappé was given the number 7 jersey for the upcoming season with PSG, taking up the squad number vacated by Lucas Moura. 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.”

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. 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. On 1 September, he scored and assisted in a 4–2 away win over , 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. 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.” 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. 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.

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. On 2 March, he scored twice in a 2–1 away win over Caen; his second goal of the match, which came from a penalty, was his 50th for the club. On 12 March 2019, he scored the 2nd goal in a 0–4 away win against Dijon FCO in Ligue 1. PSG finished the season as Ligue 1 champions, with Mbappé winning the Player of the Year award, while also finishing the season as the top goalscorer with 33 goals.

2019–20: Back-to-back league top goalscorer

On 3 August, Mbappé scored in a 2–1 win over Rennes to capture his first title of the 2019–20 season, the 2019 Trophée des Champions. He then scored again in PSG’s opening Ligue 1 match of the season, a 3–0 home win over Nîmes on 11 August. On 22 October, he came off the bench and scored a perfect hat-trick, in a 5–0 away win over Belgian side Club Brugge in the Champions League; at the age of 20 years and 306 days, he became the youngest player ever to score at least 15 goals in the competition.

On 1 May 2020, PSG have been crowned Ligue 1 champions after the season had been called off amid the COVID-19 pandemic; at the time of the League’s premature suspension, PSG were in first place, with a twelve–point lead over second–placed Marseille. Mbappé finished the 2019–20 season as joint-top scorer in Ligue 1 with 18 goals, along with Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder. However, Mbappé was assigned the title of top scorer due to his superior goals per game ratio. On 24 July, in the 2020 Coupe de France Final against Saint-Étienne, Mbappé was forced off after sustaining an injury following a challenge from Loïc Perrin, who was sent off; PSG won the match 1–0, although Mbappé was ruled out of the 2020 Coupe de la Ligue Final, which PSG went on to win, completing a domestic treble. He returned to action in the Champions League quarter-final against Atalanta on 12 August, coming on a substitute, and assisting Choupo-Moting’s match–winning goal in injury time. PSG eventually lost out in the Champions League final 1–0 to Bayern Munich on 23 August.

2020–21: COVID-19 and goalscoring achievements

Mbappé missed the first three matches of the season, against Lens, Marseille, and Metz, due to having contracted COVID-19 while playing with France. He returned to play on 20 September 2020 in a 0–3 away win against Nice, and scored a goal from a penalty. On 28 October, Mbappé recorded two assists, both for Moise Kean, in a UEFA Champions League match against İstanbul Başakşehir that ended as a 0–2 victory for PSG. In doing so, he became the player to have made the most assists in the UCL since the beginning of the 2017–18 edition, his tally adding up to 14 assists. On 31 October, Mbappé suffered a hamstring injury in a match against Nantes; the injury was described as a “slight knock”. He made his return to play for PSG in a match against his former club Monaco on 20 November, and scored the first two goals of the match in an eventual 3–2 loss. In a Ligue 1 match against Montpellier on 5 December, Mbappé scored his 100th goal for PSG, becoming one of only five players for the Parisian club to achieve the feat. In PSG’s final Champions League group match, Mbappé scored twice against İstanbul Başakşehir in a 5–1 win as PSG qualified for the knockout stage as group winners. He became the youngest player in UCL history to reach 20 goals.

National career

Mbappé capped a fine debut senior season at Monaco by scoring five times for France as they won the 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, the striker almost single-handedly securing their spot in the final with a sparkling performance in their 3–1 victory against Portugal in the semi-finals.

Mbappé was called up to the senior squad for the first time to face Luxembourg and Spain in March 2017. He made his debut on 25 March 2017 against the former, coming on for Dimitri Payet in the 78th minute of a 3–1 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification away win. In doing so, he became the second youngest player (only behind Maryan Wisnieski) to ever feature for France at 18 years, three months and five days old. On 31 August 2017, Mbappé scored his first senior international goal in a 2018 World Cup qualification match against the Netherlands. He scored twice against Russia in a friendly in March 2018.

2018 World Cup

On 17 May 2018, Mbappé was called up to the France squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. On 21 June 2018, he scored his first World Cup goal in France’s 1–0 Group C win over Peru. This made him the youngest French goalscorer in World Cup history at age 19. On 30 June 2018, he was named man of the match in a 4–3 win over Argentina, scoring twice and suffering a foul in the box which resulted in Antoine Griezmann opening the score from a penalty kick. Mbappé was the second teenager to score two goals in a World Cup match after in 1958. In a post-match press conference, Mbappé stated: “It’s flattering to be the second one after Pelé but let’s put things into context – Pelé is in another category.”

On 15 July, Mbappé scored with a 25-yard strike against Croatia in the 2018 World Cup Final, with France winning 4–2. He became the second teenager, after Pelé, to score in a World Cup Final, and with four goals in the tournament he received the FIFA World Cup Best Young Player Award. Pelé congratulated him on social media, and stated “welcome to the club”.

Euro 2020 qualifying and 2020–21 UEFA Nations League

On 11 June 2019, Mbappé scored his 100th career goal in a 4–0 away win over Andorra in Euro 2020 qualifying. On 5 September 2020, Mbappé scored the only goal for France in a 1–0 UEFA Nations League win against Sweden. However, two days after the game, he tested positive for COVID-19. He made his return to play for France in a 7–1 victory against Ukraine on 7 October 2020, a match in which he scored a goal and assisted another. One week later, he scored the match-winning goal in a 1–2 win against Croatia.