Kylian Mbappé

Kylian Mbappé Lottin (born 20 December 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Real Madrid and captains the France national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, known for his pace, dribbling, and clinical finishing.

Born in Paris and raised in nearby Bondy, Mbappé began his senior club career in 2015 with Monaco, where he won the Ligue 1 title in the 2016–17 season. In 2017, aged 18, Mbappé signed for Paris Saint-Germain on an eventual permanent transfer worth €180 million, making him the second-most-expensive player and most expensive teenage player of all time. With PSG, he won six Ligue 1 titles and four Coupes de France, including a domestic quadruple in the 2019–20 season, while also leading the club to its first ever UEFA Champions League final in 2020. He is the club's all-time top goalscorer, ranks third in assists, and is the seventh-highest goalscorer in Ligue 1 history. In 2024, after several years of speculation, Mbappé joined Real Madrid on a free transfer. He won the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in the first half of his debut season, scoring in both finals. Breaking the record for the most goals scored by a Real Madrid player in their debut season, he also won the Pichichi Trophy and his first European Golden Shoe.

At international level, Mbappé made his senior debut for France in 2017 at the age of 18. At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Mbappé became the youngest French player to score at a World Cup, as well as the second teenager, after Pelé, to score in a World Cup final. He finished as the joint second-highest goalscorer as France won the tournament; he went on to win the FIFA World Cup Best Young Player and French Player of the Year awards for his performances. He also helped France to victory in the UEFA Nations League in 2021, receiving the top scorer award in the finals. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, France reached the final again; Mbappé won the Golden Boot and Silver Ball and set the record for the most goals scored in World Cup final matches by scoring a hat-trick. Mbappé is one of only two players to have scored in two consecutive World Cup finals (the other being Brazil's Vavá in 1958 and 1962).

Mbappé finished in third place for the 2023 Ballon d'Or and was runner-up for the 2022 The Best FIFA Men's Player award. He was named in the FIFA FIFPro World11 in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, the UEFA Team of the Year in 2018 and the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season in 2016–17, 2019–20, 2020–21 and 2021–22. He was awarded the Golden Boy in 2017, the Kopa Trophy in 2018, and was shortlisted for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year in 2019 and 2023. Mbappé has been named Ligue 1 Player of the Year a record five times, and has finished as the Ligue 1 top scorer for a record six seasons; in the 2021–22 season, he became the first player to finish as both Ligue 1 top scorer and top assist provider. Mbappé was named as one of the Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2023 and was listed by Forbes as one of the world's ten highest-paid athletes in 2023 and 2024.

Early life

Kylian Mbappé Lottin was born on 20 December 1998 in the 19th arrondissement of Paris and was raised in Bondy, Seine-Saint-Denis, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris. His father, Wilfrid Mbappé, is a football coach and is originally from the Cameroonian island of Djébalè, which is home to the Sawa people. His mother and agent, Fayza Lamari, is of Algerian Kabyle origin and is a former handball player. He has a younger brother, Ethan, who plays for Lille. Their older adoptive brother, Jirès Kembo Ekoko, is a former professional footballer.

As a child, Mbappé went to a private Catholic school in Bondy, where he was considered academically gifted but unruly. At 15, he began taking Spanish lessons, and eventually became fluent in the language. Among Mbappé's idols growing up were Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, Ronaldo Nazario, Eden Hazard and Thierry Henry. As a child, Mbappé received Robinho's AC Milan shirt as a gift from his nanny's family, who were Italians and supporters of the club. However, his own favourite team had always been Real Madrid. In May 2024, just days before his transfer to Real Madrid was announced, Mbappé mentioned that he still follows Serie A and AC Milan, and would like to play for the Rossoneri if he is ever to move to Italy in the future.

Club career

Early career

Mbappé was coached by his father, Wilfried, when he started his career with AS Bondy. Another of his youth coaches at AS Bondy, Antonio Riccardi, stated,

The first time I coached him was when he was six years old. You could tell he was different. Kylian could do much more than the other children. His dribbling was already fantastic and he was much faster than the others. He was the best player I've ever seen in 15 years coaching here. In Paris, there are many talents but I'd never seen a talent like him. He was what we call a 'crack' (the best).

Eventually, Mbappé moved to the Clairefontaine academy, putting in a host of impressive performances leading to numerous French clubs, and Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Bayern Munich, attempting to sign him. At the age of 11, Real Madrid invited him to train with their under-12s and visit the club's facilities. Mbappé was tracked by Caen for three years, but their relegation from Ligue 1 in 2012 and subsequent failure to win promotion meant that they could not afford his signature. At age 14, he travelled to London after an invite from Chelsea, playing a match for their youth team against Charlton Athletic.

Monaco

In July 2013, at the age of 14, Mbappé joined the youth academy of Monaco, signing a three-year contract. The club beat competition from Real Madrid and Zinedine Zidane, who was "very involved" in efforts to sign him.

2015–2017: Breakthrough and league title

In October 2015, Mbappé was brought in by Leonardo Jardim to be a mainstay in Monaco's reserve team, but his level of skill and maturity prompted his promotion to the main squad after just three weeks. He made his first-team debut two months later, on 2 December 2015, in a 1–1 Ligue 1 home draw against Caen, replacing Fábio Coentrão after 88 minutes. Mbappé therefore became Monaco's youngest-ever first-team player, aged 16 years and 347 days, breaking the previous record set by Thierry Henry in 1994.

On 20 February 2016, Mbappé scored his first goal for the club's first team, a stoppage-time goal in a 3–1 league win over Troyes at the Stade Louis II; at the age of 17 years and 62 days, he became the youngest first-team goalscorer in Monaco's history – once again displacing Henry in the process. On 6 March 2016, Mbappé signed his first professional contract, a three-year deal, tying him to Monaco until June 2019. In an interview with CNN, Vadim Vasilyev, Monaco's vice-president, stated that he knew early on that Mbappé was a "phenomenon".

Mbappé scored the first hat-trick of his first-team career on 14 December 2016, in a 7–0 home win over Rennes in the Coupe de la Ligue round of 16 – the first hat-trick scored by any Monaco player in the competition since Sonny Anderson in 1997. On 11 February 2017, Mbappé scored the first Ligue 1 hat-trick of his career in a 5–0 home win over Metz; at 18 years and two months, he became the youngest player to score a league hat-trick since Jérémy Ménez did so for Sochaux back in 2005. On 21 February, Mbappé scored Monaco's second goal in the 40th minute of a 5–3 loss away to Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League round of 16. It was his first European-competition goal, and he became the second-youngest French scorer in Champions League history, behind only Karim Benzema. On 5 March, Mbappé scored two first-half goals in a 4–0 home win over Nantes to bring his Ligue 1 career tally to ten goals, becoming the youngest player in the previous thirty years to reach the ten-goal mark in the league. On 11 March, he scored a goal in a 2–1 home win over Bordeaux, registering his seventh goal in his previous four league starts.

On 15 March 2017, Mbappé scored Monaco's opening goal in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 tie with Manchester City. Monaco went on to win 3–1, and with the aggregate score being tied 6–6, advanced to the quarter-finals thanks to the away goals rule. In the quarter-finals against Borussia Dortmund, Mbappé won a penalty and scored two goals as Monaco won the first leg 3–2 at the Westfalenstadion. In the second leg at home, he opened the scoring as Monaco won 3–1 and advanced to the semi-finals. They were eventually eliminated from the Champions League following a 4–1 loss on aggregate to Juventus, with Mbappé scoring his team's lone goal in the second leg. Mbappé ended the 2016–17 season with 26 goals from 44 matches in all competitions, as Monaco won the Ligue 1 title. He credited fellow Monaco striker Radamel Falcao as a key influence on him throughout the season, giving him the space to express himself and teaching him to be "calm" and "serene" during the game.