He only turned 18 in December, yet on Saturday many of Monaco’s hopes will be pinned on Kylian Mbappe. Radamel Falcao, who is carrying a muscular problem into this match and is not guaranteed to feature, may be the team’s star man in terms of stature, but the Colombia ace now finds himself rapidly being challenged by a young man who was not even a regular in the side at the end of 2016.
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The forward debuted for the France national side against Luxembourg last weekend and started his first match for Les Bleus in a 2-0 friendly loss to Spain on Tuesday, yet it is in Lyon that he will play the biggest match of his young career to date.
It is hard to understate the hype that has bubbled up around the teenager in France over the course of the last three months. He has developed from promising youngster into fully fledged international in the blink of an eye, and such is the excitement around the best young striker anywhere in the world, transfer fees of upwards of €96 million have been touted in the media.
All the big clubs are interested in Mbappe. Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are just some of the names eager to whisk the Frenchman away from his footballing cradle on a rocky outcrop on the Mediterranean Sea.
Supporters of those clubs are salivating over the thought of him leading their side for the next five, 10 or even 15 years.
It is easy to see why. It has taken him a fraction of the time to reach 10 league goals that it did for either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, who remain the two undoubted superstars of the game to date. The duo, who have dominated the Ballon d’Or for the best part of a decade, meanwhile, did not have as many games, goals or assists combined at 18 years and three months as Mbappe.
And yet there is no guarantee that the player tipped to follow in their footsteps will be going anywhere this summer.
Monaco, it seems, is the best place for the youngster to develop. Several players and former players have voiced this opinion, including Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, who admitted it was “a slap in the face” when he traded Lyon for the Spanish giants as a 21-year-old.
Robert Pires, a World Cup winner and multiple Premier League winner with Arsenal, has been most impactful, though.
“The most important thing for him is to stay with Monaco at least two more years because he’s young and needs to play,” he explained. “He’s got no need to leave to a club like Real Madrid, for example, which is one of the biggest in the world but where the pressure is high.
“He needs stability. Monaco is perfect for him.”
Also read: 5 clubs that could help Kylian Mbappe become the 'next Thierry Henry'
Mbappe would do well to look at the example of Anthony Martial, who moved to Manchester United in 2015 for €45 million having emerged at Monaco after graduating from Lyon’s youth academy.
Martial enjoyed a strong first season at Old Trafford, but a change of management brought in Jose Mourinho last summer and he has not enjoyed the same opportunities in the first team. As a result, his progress has stalled somewhat this season.
That is not to say the 21-year-old will not realise the undoubted superstar potential that he possesses – look at the way Thierry Henry responded to a turgid spell at Juventus by exploding at Arsenal – but there is no doubt his path to that level has been complicated.
Mbappe has no need to go down that route at this juncture.
“Our work is to make him improve,” Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim explained at the end of 2016, before Mbappe’s explosion truly took place. “He’ll go to another level in two or three years’ time. But he needs time.
“In France, sometimes we believe that the young players are ready, but it’s not always true. There are steps to respect. He must take time to progress and to work.”
The youngster, meanwhile, appears to have as cool a head for the business of his career as he does in front of goal. He has noted many times that he has a roadmap planned out in front of him, while he has already shown the mental fortitude to reject the advances of Real Madrid previously.
For most, any opportunity to sign for the Bernabeu giants is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but Mbappe has already proven he is not ‘most’ players. Rejecting such advantages once more may just be the investment his career needs to continue in the footsteps of Messi and Ronaldo all the way to the Ballon d’Or.
