(Doha) Precocious football talent, world champion from the age of 19, Kylian Mbappé has become a master in the art of meeting expectations with records, disconcerting dribbles on and off the pitch and meticulous management of his assumed image of planetary star.
“Aren’t you happy? Tripled! The sassy formula of the French striker, in a report on Canal + in 2018, alone sums up the character.
Sure of his strengths, instinctive, often divisive, but terribly effective and without sharing. Kylian Mbappé has the opportunity, on Sunday, to lift a second world trophy before his 24th birthday, which only Pelé has achieved in history.
Supersonic, the Parisian raised in Bondy (Seine–Saint-Denis) is programmed to break all records. It shines at a time when Lionel Messi is seeking a final moment of glory and when the star Cristiano Ronaldo, his childhood idol, is declining.
With 250 goals scored in his first 362 games, the player trained in Monaco surpasses the two legends of the 21st century in precocity. He will probably soon become the top scorer in the history of Paris SG, ahead of Edinson Cavani (200 goals, against 190 at “Kyky”).
And in the medium term, Olivier Giroud’s record of goals in the French team (53) will fall into the hands of the insatiable striker (33, including 9 at the World Cup), already seventh in the rankings with the Blues ahead of Zinédine Zidane. Waiting for a first Ballon d’Or?
The descendant of Pelé
“I always wanted to be the first everywhere, in the French team as in the club”, recognized the N.10 tricolor in March, a few months from the World Cup, his “obsession”.
The breakthrough times of crack are reminiscent of those of Pelé. From South America, “O Rei” finds himself in Kylian and regularly praises him. But “the King will always remain the King”, replies Mbappé, humbled by the legend and his twelve goals in the World Cup.
Faced with his contemporaries, Mbappé trades humility for technical audacity and a certain ego, assuming his status as a world superstar.
“People don’t understand the ego,” he explained recently on RMC: “No one but yourself is going to push you. »
In the France team, Didier Deschamps takes care to constantly remind that Mbappé is a team player.
“Kylian has no ego…”, he advanced in recent days, before recovering. “Finally, obviously it is important and decisive, but it has always been part of a collective framework”.
In Qatar, the striker surprises with his joie de vivre and his ease in the locker room. Usually more solitary, he appears totally fulfilled and displays a real bond with Marcus Thuram, Ousmane Dembélé or Aurélien Tchouaméni. Even his relationship with Olivier Giroud has calmed down.
“We see him a lot more inside, in the group, he talks a lot. He knows that his every move will be watched by journalists, fans, but also by his teammates. He is impeccable! “, laughs Antoine Griezmann.
Attracted by the light
A fine speaker from an early age, Mbappé has long surprised the media with a rare maturity. One of his lines, “Me, you don’t speak to me about age”, will remain cult.
Over time, the Parisian has nevertheless put this asset at the service of a thoughtful career plan, a skillful and calculated communication.
His rare interviews are most often granted to major magazines outside France and his appearances in front of the sports press of PSG or Les Bleus allow him to distill messages, on the negotiation of image rights in selection or his tactical positioning in clubs, for example.
Incubated by a restricted entourage, with his mother and his lawyer in the first circle, Mbappé has also developed his brand, with nearly 80 million subscribers on Instagram and major partnerships with the equipment manufacturer Nike, the designer Dior or the Hublot watchmaker, the same as Pelé.
If the UFO Mbappé likes the light so much, it’s because it shines even more under pressure.
“He is aware of his enormous qualities. The emotional side does not play for him, he is above that, it allows him to express all his qualities, speed, strike, intelligence, vision, ”explains assistant coach Guy Stéphan.
It is no coincidence that he signs his best season in 2021-22 (39 goals and 21 assists for the club), even though the second most expensive player in history (recruited 180 million euros in 2017 in Monaco) comes to the end of the contract in Paris and maintains the suspense.
By turning his back on Real Madrid, the club of his dreams, in favor of an extension at PSG, the striker has chosen his city and his country, with one objective: to bring the capital its first League of champions.
To be the first, again and again.