NARRATIVE. Kylian Mbappé, itinerary of the young fan of Cristiano Ronaldo who became a Real Madrid superstar

It’s a new adventure that begins, but the circle seems almost complete. Almost ten years after his professional debut, Kylian Mbappé has finally joined the club that has made him dream since his childhood for a five-year contract with Real Madrid, made official on Monday June 3. In ten years, from INF Clairefontaine to Paris, via the Monaco rock, Kylian Mbappé has unfolded the thread of his career, under the watchful eyes of the world of football, its supporters and its detractors.

A career which could very well have started in the Spanish capital, since Real Madrid quickly detected the eldest of the Mbappé clan on their radar. In 2012, when he joined INF Clairefontaine at the age of 13, he was invited by the club to spend a few days in the city and at the training center, where he was received by Zinédine Zidane.

An interest which had undoubtedly flattered the young Kylian, who has lived and breathed Madrid for as long as he can remember. “He’s been a Real fan since he was little”already confided his mother Fayza Lamari in July 2013 in The Parisian. In a series of photos from a shoot with France Footballwhich appear regularly on social networks, we see him on his bed, leaning against the wall or with his chin in his hands, green sweater and dark jeans, surrounded by posters of Cristiano Ronaldo.

However, it is neither in Madrid, nor even in Paris that he explodes in the eyes of the football world, but in Monaco. On the Rock, he perfected his training, tasted the professional group very early (from December 2015, just before he turned 17), signed his first professional contract (in March 2016) with already seven matches, 148 minutes and a goal in his legs .

While Monaco are engaged on four tables until the spring, their speed, their drive and their ability to score goals carry their name beyond the borders of Ligue 1 and France. Europe discovered it with fanfare one evening of the round of 16 first leg ASM-Manchester City, on a well-inspired recovery under the bar (and attributed by the announcer of the Etihad Stadium to Djibril Sidibé, holder in the right lane of defense and number 19, close to the scorer’s 29).

After a crazy season in the red and white jersey of the principality, marked by a European semi-final and a French champion title, Kylian Mbappé already wants to aim higher and bigger. While Real, never far away, also enters the negotiations, the native of Bondy chooses Paris Saint-Germain, the club of “his city”, he who was born in the 19th arrondissement. On August 31, 2017, on the wire, Kylian Mbappé officially became a new PSG player, at 18 years old. “For any young person from the Paris region, it is often a dream to be able to wear the red and blue jersey and to taste the unique atmosphere of the Parc des Princes”he is already savoring.

With the other expenses of the summer, including Neymar, one of his inspirations, and the boy’s potential, the alliance looks like a promise. She delivered a successful first 2017-2018 exercise (21 goals and 16 assists for three trophies won). His second season for the capital club begins at the start of the 2018 school year, crowned with a brand new status as world champion and star of a world championship during which he was already questioned about his future. The months progress, he gains age, experience and breadth in a collective of which he undoubtedly wishes to become the headliner. Goal machine, Mbappé is gradually gaining a place of choice in the individual statistical rankings (like the ranking of L1 scorers, at the top of which he will place his name six seasons in a row, starting with this 2018 season- 2019 and until 2024).

But the relationship between Mbappé and PSG has never been truly linear, and the shadow of Real Madrid has almost always loomed large. The first turbulence appeared at the end of this 2018-2019 season, when the Bondysian dropped a little unexpected but thoughtful bombshell at the UNFP trophy ceremony: “I feel that it is time for me to have more responsibilities. Maybe here in Paris, I would be happy, or maybe elsewhere for a new project.” After four years in Ligue 1, the player feels he has arrived “at a first or second turning point of [sa] career”. The start of a long saga which will regularly animate the daily life of the capital club.

Two years later, Kylian Mbappé, still Parisian, is preparing to enter the fourth and final year of his contract. Paris has just ceded the title to Lille, but stolen Lionel Messi from Barça in a crazy transfer, and its star comes back to ask for his departure, in vain. “I asked to leave, because from the moment I did not want to extend, I wanted the club to have a transfer fee to have a quality replacement”he explained in October in a long interview given to RMC.

While he finds himself free to negotiate with the club of his choice from January 1, 2022, he finally surprises everyone by announcing his extension. “I am very happy to continue the adventure, to stay here in France, in Paris in my city, I always said that it was my home”he declares at a white-hot Parc des Princes just before the last day of the championship, May 21, 2022. While all the elements finally seemed to come together, the star once again slipped into the hands of Real.

At 24, Mbappé still clings to the dream of bringing his club its first Champions League. After several hasty exits in the round of 16, he tasted the joys of a nice European course during the Final 8 with Covid sauce in the summer of 2020, where PSG played its first final. But after its extension, Bayern Munich (2023) then Borussia Dortmund (2024) successively stand in the way of the Parisians.

As on the European scene, his two additional seasons alternate between flashes of genius, goal records in the Parisian jersey broken in March 2023 and the impression of a missed appointment. While his club had communicated with great fanfare about an extension until 2025, the deal actually hides two years plus one bonus, which the Bondy crack quickly chose not to activate. Sidelined during preseason last summer, he was also regularly put on the bench by his coach Luis Enrique in the second half of the season, even though his departure was no longer an open secret.

Until May 10, and a video published without warning on his social networks, two days before the title celebrations and the last match of the season at the Parc des Princes, in which he officially announced his departure from Paris and France. We had to wait for communication from Real Madrid so that its destination, already known to everyone, was also made official, Monday 3 June. At 25 years old, Kylian Mbappé finally joins the club of his dreams to write a new page in its history.