My audience with Kylian Mbappe - the world's most expensive teenager

Kylian Mbappe with his family at PSG
Kylian Mbappe with his family at PSG Credit: MAGALI DELPORTE

The first thing you notice about Kylian Mbappe is that Arsene Wenger is right. Beyond his outrageous footballing talent it is remarkable how assured he is. He is confident, articulate and attentive.

It is frankly preposterous that an 18 year-old with just half a season – he says so himself – of regular first-team football behind him has been the subject of a frantic scramble by every big club in Europe this summer, with the second-largest transfer fee ever eventually being agreed for him, but that is the case. They all wanted him.

However, when you meet Mbappe – after obviously acknowledging his incredible football ability – it is easier to see why he is in such demand. Mbappe is together. He is 18 but has the air of someone much older – while also not losing any of that boyish enthusiasm, as he showed when he later met the PSG fans and danced in celebration with them outside the Parc des Princes.

Kylian Mbappe meets the world's media
Kylian Mbappe meets the world's media Credit: MAGALI DELPORTE

Mbappe takes it all in his stride as he heads towards his big ‘unveiling’ at Paris Saint-Germain following his €180 million (£165m) transfer from Monaco which will make him the second most-expensive player in history after his new team-mate Neymar.

During that press conference he deals with matters head-on - including admitting that his first intention was to remain at Monaco before things changed and he decided to go this summer. Throughout it appears clear, and it is something that he wants to stress, that it was his decision to go and his decision to join PSG.

Kylian Mbappe and Neymar on the training field
Kylian Mbappe and Neymar on the training field Credit: AFP

He arrives for our interview – scheduled for 10:35am before he then meets the world’s media – on time. In fact, a little early. Suited and booted and ready to go he greets me in English before apologising that he will have to conduct the interview in French. I should be the one apologising. But he clearly understands my questions, without the aid of the translator, and quickly considers his answers which are delivered articulately and measured. But he also says something. It is not just plaudits and clichés.

Arriving with him is his father, Wilfried, who listens in throughout and is evidently a significant influence, his younger brother Ethan, who is clearly delighted with it all, and other members of the Mbappe family.

His mother, Fayza, is close by and later when it comes to the phalanx of photographers taking pictures on the pitch, Mbappe is flanked by some of his family which is obviously appropriate given he is still just a teenager. His mother maintains a low-profile throughout.

Kylian Mbappe
Kylian Mbappe Credit: MAGALI DELPORTE

PSG have been blown away, so far, at how mature Mbappe is. But then he has been in the limelight for at least five years, talked about as the rising star of French football, profiled by France Football at 15, the prodigy who was known and wanted everywhere, who went to Chelsea and then Real Madrid where he watched the first-team train and, just 14, was introduced to Zinedine Zidane.

Other big clubs quickly came calling as they did when it was apparent Monaco – and it was interesting and instructive that he chose them as his first club, where he could launch his career - could not hold on to him.

Kylian Mbappe meets the PSG fans
Kylian Mbappe meets the PSG fans Credit: MAGALI DELPORTE

So Mbappe is used to the attention, to an extent, and deals with it. On the pitch he uses his brain – he is a thinker, a player who has game-awareness and intelligence and not just power, speed and skill. Off the pitch, also, that intelligence is clear and PSG, as with all the clubs who courted Mbappe, did their homework. They know he has the temperament and character to deal with the superstar status he now has. But even they have been surprised at quite how mature he is.

Mbappe is grounded but he is also reaching for the stars and is ambitious. Little appears to faze him. He has had compliments and comparisons showered upon him but responds well to those and does not appear in the least bit overwhelmed. He certainly was not on his big day.

It was a good interview for me to do, and interesting that he agreed to do it with a British newspaper, and also one that laid down a marker in my mind, that Mbappe has it all.

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