Copy linkFacebookXPinterestEmailShare this article 0Join the conversationFollow usAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleNewsletterSubscribe to our newsletterI've been covering Kylian and his career since he was like 11 or 12 years old. I still remember the first time one of my friends in Paris said, Listen, we have this kid who is destroying everything in Paris at grassroots level, we should go and watch. Paris is big, but it's also quite a small football world where everybody knows each other, especially at grassroots level when you're that age.So we went to see Kylian Mbappe future France captain and Real Madrid star play for Bondy at a time when his shirt was too big for him, and he was already playing two years up. He was tiny and skinny, and he just destroyed the opposition, really. Since then, I kept an eye on him when he went to Clairefontaine and Monaco, obviously in the youth team, but then when he made his debut, it made sense to share it with people, to write the biography and tell the story.He was a kid that was clearly super talented and a prodigy when he was young, but he also had a different mindset to a lot of the very talented young players that we come across. The family setup was also very interesting. Not that they were pushy parents, but they knew what they wanted and they clearly knew that Kylian was special as a footballer, but also as a young boy. So I thought it was a fascinating story that we told before on radio, TV shows, or articles, but it was good to put it all in a book, basically.BUY LAURENS' BOOKBUY NOW Get Julien Laurens' definitive biography of Kylian MbappeMbappe was something new for French football, though: a ready-made superstar as a teenager. I think that is probably due to the family setup and his dad having been into football a lot at grassroots level. He was a really good player; then he was a coach and sporting director at Bondy. His mum also played high-level handball, and his stepbrother Jires was obviously a professional player. I think that kind of environment helps because, of all the Paris prodigies and phenoms and wonderkids that we've had through the years, nobody felt ready and determined like him.Thierry Henry was always determined and was a genius as well, but he didn't grow up with it: his relationship with his dad was very different, for example, whereas with Kylian and his dad, it's like a fusion between them. Hatem Ben Arfa was an incredible young player at 11 or 12. Nicolas Anelka was the same. Jeremie Aliadiere was the same.So we had those real, proper wonderkids before, some of whom had amazing careers, but with Kylian, it felt like and maybe that's just this generation in a way he was just ready. He knew what he wanted from a very young age, and so did his family. They had everything. When people say Project Mbappe, its not entirely accurate, but they knew exactly what they wanted, and they had a pathway they wanted to follow. They were very strong on what they wanted for whatever step he took in his career, which was not the case really with Thierry, Anelka, or Ben Arfa. For them, it was just like, OK, let's join an academy and do our best, then hopefully we make a debut. All of their debuts, if you think about it, were either a bit later or a bit more clouded, maybe in Anelka's case, or even Ben Arfa to a certain extent. With Kylian, it was all so linear and so straightforward. Even when he was 12, you would watch him play for Bondy in a grassroots game, a regional game, really nothing special, not playing against Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal or Bayern Munich, just a normal Sunday afternoon league game in the Paris suburbs. Even then, you could see the Manchester City scout, the Real Madrid scout, the PSG scout, and the Monaco scout. There was a lot of talent in his Bondy team, like Jonathan Ikone, who played for PSG and Fiorentina, so they had talent in that Bondy team and in a lot of the teams they were playing against.But you knew the scouts were there for him, because he was the best of that bunch. They were there every weekend. It's very unusual to have that many scouts going to every single game that Bondy were playing, but they were all there. It got to the point where Kylian knew who they worked for and knew their names because they were coming so often; they were almost part of the family, really. So that is different.From the beginning, we knew that at any point there would be a discussion about his future, changing clubs, or signing somewhere, and they would all be queuing up. Again, I think this is pretty unique from such a young age. From the age of 12, before going to Clairefontaine, if he hadn't gone to the Clairefontaine Academy, he could have literally gone anywhere. Any of the big English clubs, the Spanish clubs, or teams in Germany or France would have taken him. That is special.Once you know you've got this mapped out, you want to go to Clairefontaine because it's a really good education, football-wise and school-wise, for two years. After that, you can pick the academy you want where you feel he's got the best pathway towards the first team, because you want, and almost demand, that when he reaches 16 or 17, he should be with the first team. He should be training with them and very soon making his pro debut. For that, you need to find the right club. If you go at that age to Real Madrid, it's more difficult for you to have that breakthrough season and break into the first team than if you go to a club in France, especially one that gives chances to young players.They knew what they wanted, but they could have taken a completely different direction at some point. They never wanted him to go abroad too early. Even when he signed for PSG from Monaco, everything was agreed with Real Madrid between the two clubs, but they felt at 18 that was still a bit too soon for him to go to Madrid, even with Zidane as the manager. They could have gone for a lot of money somewhere in Europe when he was 12, 14, 17, or 18, and they decided against that because they didn't think it was the right thing for him at the time. Money was never the main thing. They got a lot of money from Monaco when he signed there, and they got a lot of money from PSG, so money was there anyway. It was just about making the right call on where to go, and that was never, let's go to a big European club early, like Jeremie Aliadiere did when he left Clairefontaine to go to Arsenal.Even someone like Aliadiere, who was a phenom and a wonderkid like the others we mentioned, with hindsight, going from Paris to Arsenal at that time was maybe not the right call. The good thing with Mbappe is that he had all those examples before him. He could look at what Thierry Henry did, what Anelka did, what Aliadiere did, what Evra did all those Paris boys, a lot of whom went through the Clairefontaine Academy like him, like Diaby, Ben Gallas, Saha. He saw those careers and thought, OK, this is what they did. He also had a lot of friends from Bondy who went to Germany really young, to RB Leipzig for example, and never played and never really made it. He thought, OK, I don't want to do this. So it was a bit easier for his generation than the Thierry Henry generation, where there was no social media at the time. Kylian had a bit of an advantage like that.So did the World Cup force him to step up sooner than he would have liked?The World Cup is every four years; you take it when it's there. You can't say, Well, I'll have another two or three that I can win after. I think he always wanted the stardom. I know now his mum says that he can't have a normal life, which is true. He can't go out like you and me and buy a baguette and a pain au chocolat. He can't go to the cinema like normal people, or go to Disney World, or do some shopping somewhere. That's impossible.But that's the life he chose, and that's also the life he wanted. If you said to him when he was 10 years old, You would have the chance to win the World Cup at 19. Would you take it, or would you like to wait until you're 23? he would have said, Give it to me at 19. If you said to him, You can be French champion at 17, reach the semi-final of the Champions League, and break all the records possible for a teenager at that time, would you take it or wait? he would take it. He has no time: that generation has no patience.There's this very famous line that he said on television when he was 18: Don't talk to me about age. If you're good enough, you play at whatever level: Monaco, Champions League, World Cup, France, PSG, Real Madrid. If you're good enough, you're there, and you take what you can. So whether he was 18 or 28 when he won the World Cup, and whatever that meant for his life and career, he was ready for it. For me, he was born ready for all that kind of stuff. He's a super smart kid, but more than that, I think he's always wanted to be the best and always wanted to be the star. Maybe that's just what those kind of guys are like just like Cristiano, Messi, or Ibrahimovic. They're ready for it, and whether they like their life and the lack of privacy after that is a different discussion.In terms of football, I think that's what they want, and they were just born different. That's certainly what he wanted, and that's why he was not happy when he was at Monaco at 15, training with the first team and already being one of the best players at training, but not being given his chance. He was like, Hang on, why am I not playing in Ligue 1 when clearly everybody can see at training I score a lot of goals and it's hard to stop me? because he felt he was ready already. He always had that in his mind, his ambition, drive, and determination, really.Get FourFourTwo NewsletterThe best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.And yet, in the last ten years, from 18 to 28, I don't think he's changed that much. The world around him and how we see and perceive him has changed, sure: obviously he is much richer, has won more titles, and has scored more goals than ten years ago, and he's going to be 28 at the end of the year. He's one of the biggest stars and the best player in the world, all that kind of stuff. Maybe at 18, he could still go to the bakery, and now he can't.But he said something really interesting the other day. I haven't changed. Everything around me has changed massively. The way people look at me has changed. Probably the pressure he's under has changed, along with the expectations, and now he's also the country's captain, and he plays for Real Madrid.He still watches as much football as he did ten years ago. He still plays on the PlayStation, like he did ten years ago. He still has the same PA or the team that helps him with his career. What has changed is that, yes, he's invested some of his money and he's got a huge machine around him of PR and marketing people because he's become the best player in the world.Football-wise, and as a person, hes grown up, more mature, probably smarter, and a bit more careful of what he says and does because he has to be. Every single step he makes is either scrutinised, filmed, or discussed, which was not the case ten years ago. Certainly Monaco at the time was a much quieter place than Madrid is. His mum and dad are still very important; they're not as present maybe as ten years ago because he's got a girlfriend now, but they still come to Madrid very often. They're still very tight and very close, along with the grandparents, uncles, aunties, nieces, and nephews. He's a big family guy, and as long as he has that, I think not much will change outside of the football.I've always had that respect for him. I think hes fascinating. I can see why some people talk about his mindset at times, or the body language that he has, or what he projects, and maybe the arrogance. But that's what we do, that's who we are as Parisians. It would be the same in my field, and stuff like that.I'm always amazed and again, we go back to the superstars because I was a really good player myself, but I just never had the kind of sheer hunger that those guys have. They always want to be the best, being obsessed with performance, wins, goals, and victories. I didn't have it; it was just not how I was made, and I realised that a bit later.For him to go through all those early years, the way people were talking about him, and then to look again at the early years at Monaco... when you talk to Jardim, Campos, or someone like Joao Moutinho, who said Kylian at 18 was just incredible. Moutinho said, I've never seen anything like that at such a young age apart from Cristiano when we played at Sporting. I just think that's how those guys are made. Maybe LeBron is the same, or Kobe was the same, or Jordan is the same, or Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton at a young age. I think they just have it; it's not something that you can maybe learn. You can get more ambitious when you grow up, but not at that level.Writing the book just reminded me that he's in a different league. He was in a different league when he was 12 and 14 at Clairefontaine, where during the first year over there he struggled a little bit and was not the best because there were bigger, older kids than him. But by the second year, because he was so obsessed with being the best, he destroyed everybody and became the best in three months. I just think those guys have that in them, and I don't think many other people in the world have that.Now, hes being questioned for the first time in his career. I don't think that fazes him. I think it will probably make him even more determined to prove all those people and critics wrong. And to be honest, I don't know how you can question somebody who scored 41 goals in 42 games in the season.I understand the discussion we can have about him defending a bit more and running a bit more for the team: this is a debate that has been going on in France for many years with the national team, and we have it now before the World Cup again on what Kylian will do when we don't have the ball. It's fine. Fayza, his mum, often says that he didn't defend when he was four years old when he started football, so he's not going to defend now at 28. It's fair enough. I think he still could do a bit more and needs to do a bit more, but it won't change him massively either. He's not going to become like Ousmane Dembele in terms of pressing, counter-pressing, and off-the-ball stuff. He will never be Cavani either on that level, a pressing machine chasing every ball and hustling. That's not him. He's not going to do it, so let's put that on one side; that's never going to happen. Can he improve a bit there? Sure, I think he will do a bit more, but that definitely isn't going to be what he's known for.I can understand that side of it, but the rest his leadership, the goal contributions, what he can do on his own in a game to win you matches I think that's incredible and shouldn't be questioned, really.There was a moment when he was at Monaco, the first year after he joined, when things were not going well. He was only 15 but playing with the Under-17s, and he and the coach just didn't get on. The coach didn't like him and didn't think he was working hard enough. That's maybe the only time in Kylian's life where he didn't enjoy his football anymore. He would come back home from training crying and wouldn't want to go back.I'm really passionate about football, and I'm sure you are. I can watch games all the time, and I would love to play every day if I could. Kylian loves football more than anybody else in the world, probably on the same level as Thierry Henry. I've never seen anything like it. For him to not want to go to play football or not enjoy it anymore, that was tough: tougher than what has been said around Real Madrid and him this season.He considers the current criticism, of course, and takes it on board. He understands the frustration very much and is very aware of what people say because he's so smart. But I think it will not put him off or hurt him in that kind of way, not like that first year at Monaco. That was really the one moment that hurt him massively. The rest? No. He looks at it and says, OK, you don't rate me right now? I'll show you. Every time that kind of stuff happened and it happened with PSG and Tuchel, and it happened a bit with France when he had a moment where he was not scoring much his mindset was always, I'll come back stronger and show you. Usually, that works, and he does.People can point out that he hasn't won the Champions League yet or the Ballon d'Or, but I think that will come inevitably. We can also say that Ronaldo Nazario never won the Champions League either. To win the World Cup as he did, and then to score all those goals, he's on course to be at the level of Messi and Ronaldo when they finish in terms of goalscoring.When he finishes his career, I don't know if he will have as many Ballons d'Or or Champions Leagues as them, but I also know that he already has as many World Cups as Messi and more than Cristiano, and he's got at least two to go three maybe if he plays at a good level until he's 35 or 36.For me, in terms of French players in history, he's already top three. There's really Platini, Zidane, and him more than Thierry Henry, Raymond Kopa, or Antoine Griezmann. In French football history, there's no doubt. In overall football history, I think he's already one of the greatest. It's hard to say at 27 because there's still a lot for him to achieve before being in that final bracket; he has his own story to keep writing. But I just cannot see him stopping scoring or not winning anything anymore between now and the end of his career with Real Madrid or France.It's hard to project what will happen in ten years' time, but I think I can say without getting it too wrong that he will be very close to 900 career goals, and will probably have another World Cup or Euros. Real Madrid will build another really great team to win the Champions League, so he will get there, and the Ballon d'Or will follow. I think if he wins the World Cup this year with France, he will win the Ballon d'Or. I can see why people say things are missing, sure, and he's still only 27, but for me, he is the best player in the world right now. What he's done so far already, even without a Champions League, is incredible.TOPICSFranceReal MadridWorld Cup 2026Julien LaurensSocial Links NavigationWith contributions fromMark WhiteContent Editor
