He played the full game against Benfica in Champions League matchday three without a goal contribution. An 18-year-old Kylian Mbappé after scoring for Monaco against Manchester City in the Champions League. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian The Mbappés sifted the countless offers and chose Monaco, where the route to the first team looked shortest. Mbappé arrived there, he says, “with my [footballing] baggage well filled.”

French fans like their stars humble. Mbappé has explained “the French mentality” to Neymar, who favours a bling-bling, poker-playing party lifestyle. Mbappé says, “In Brazil, they are more festive, in France more serious. Here it’s not considered good to display your passions. People will think he’s neglecting PSG because he plays poker. I think he has begun to understand that. At first it was hard for him because he experienced it as an affront. When he arrived, they put his face on the Eiffel Tower, and six months later they’re asking him why he’s playing poker. In France, people know what you have but they don’t want to see it. They just want to see you playing football, smiling.” The nearer the match came, the less stressed I was’: Paul Pogba, left, and Mbappé celebrate winning the World Cup for France by defeating Croatia 4–2 in the final on 15 July 2018, in Moscow. Mbappé, aged 19 at the time, scored the fourth goal for Les Bleus David Ramos - FIFA // Getty Images Kids in performance-sports families learn that they never arrive. Each step up is just another learning opportunity. In Monaco’s first team, the teenaged Mbappé encountered the veteran Colombian striker Radamel Falcao, freshly returned from unhappy loan spells with Manchester United and Chelsea. While PSG suffered huge disappointment against Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16, Mbappe did score in the 1-0 win in the home leg. The more you become an important person, the more duties you have. I’m no longer the little kid. I’m Kylian MbappéHe grew up practically inside the local football club, AS Bondy. “In the Parisian suburbs there are football fields everywhere,” he enthuses. “People here live for football. I was born with the sports ground facing my window.” It’s no wonder, he adds, that Paris’s suburbs are perhaps the deepest talent pool in global football, producing players such as Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, N’Golo Kanté and Riyad Mahrez.

He started 2023 on a negative note as PSG lost 3-1 in a top-of-the-table match against Lens, Mbappe failing to score or assist.

Kylian Mbappe 2020-21 stats

He was shut out in PSG's subsequent Ligue 1 game against Lyon, which ended in a 1-0 victory for the Parisians. Nevertheless, he completed the 90 minutes, with Neymar taken off before him.