Three years ago, the man everyone calls Kylian now was Mr. Mbappé-Lottin; 18 years old and still a comet that intrigues about to enter the head of the general public by dint of acceleration and interiors of the law, giving rise to a thousand comparisons with Thierry Henry, his predecessor at the head of the attack on the AS Monaco (ASM).
Two evenings were enough: one on the lawn of Manchester City, in the knockout stages of the Champions League; the other in the next round, at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, where Mbappé returns Tuesday, February 18 with Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG).
The match in England in February 2017 was his first start in the Champions League. After a media campaign by the player and his father, and a hat-trick in Ligue 1 against FC Metz, Leonardo Jardim imposed him in place of Valère Germain to support Radamel Falcao. He bet on "Kid's fantasy" to destabilize Pep Guardiola's rearguard.
A success, even if the ASM loses 5-3. The Frenchman, who will score a goal, knows the decisive match, as he will tell later in a documentary in Canal + magazine "Interior sport": "Either that definitely put me in the back of the rotation, or … clack." " It will be "clack".
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After City, Florentino Pérez's call
Florentino Pérez, President of Real Madrid, calls AS Monaco to express his interest, and bids are starting to rise regarding the future transfer of the 18-year-old prodigy. Like Pérez, Mbappé thinks about the following: "I don't have time to rest on a Champions League match. I still have other things to do. I put it in a book, but I will read it when I am old.
France has already made it the figurehead of this Monaco team which stands up to PSG in Ligue 1. Mbappé-Lottin is incrusted every week or almost on the "front page" of L'Equipe, makes the cover of The Magazine Team with Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar: "Les intrepides". In March, Didier Deschamps called him for the first time to the Blues.
Europe is not yet conquered. She is ecstatic about this impetuous youth on all lines: Djibril Sidibé and Benjamin Mendy in defense, Tiémoué Bakayoko, Silva and Lemar in the middle, Mbappé in attack.
Irvin Cardona, now a Brest striker and then close to Mbappé, remembers that the young man had taken these tenures in the Champions League as a natural thing:
"We didn't realize how lucky we were, him to be a regular, me to be on the bench in Dortmund. He wanted to win in the eleven and made it known. He was ambitious: Kylian was clear with that. "
Two goals, a penalty kick
After Dortmund’s match, he alone embodies the Monegasque adventure. In the absence of Bakayoko, Mendy and Sidibé, Mbappé is the hero of the 3-1 victory in Dortmund on April 12, 2017, which opens the doors to the last four of C1.
Under the eyes of his father and his little brother Ethan, he scored twice and caused a penalty, missed by Fabinho. Mbappé, the youngest scorer in a Champions League knockout double, celebrates his goals under the armpits, a nod to his brother.
The taste for provocation ball with the foot, the faculty of acceleration and the calls in the back of the defense, the little enthusiasm for the defensive work and the opportunism in front of the goal are already present at the French, installed in a role of attacker who revolves around Falcao.
The heads of Dortmund's players remained in the locker room, even in the coach, in the first half: the day before, the match was postponed twenty-four hours after the attack on the BVB coach. The event shocks football Europe, but Mbappé remains in his bubble: "We are pros, we have to get used to everything, even under the most extreme conditions. Today was extreme. "
"He managed as if nothing had happened"
Despite the heavy context and the choirs of Dortmund's “yellow wall”, Mbappé will manage this quarter-final of the Champions League "Like a neighborhood match", marvels in The Team former AS Monaco striker Victor Ikpeba. "If he scores like that in such encounters with the pressure that goes with it, I don't know what to say about his future! He is incredible. "
The German sports biweekly kicker assigned to "Mbappé-Lottin" the best mark of the match, praising its mobility, speed and technical facility. La Repubblica, in Italy, is enthusiastic about the "New prodigy of European football", while the Guardian talk about a "Irresistible demonstration of speed, power and quality of finish".
The least impressed is Mbappé, who quietly comments: "I was always told, in my youth (Sic), that when I have the ball something must happen. Why am I laid back? I’ve always been like that! "
Cardona assures him: on the return from Dortmund, Mbappé "Managed as if nothing had happened. He was happy but did not show much joy. It just gave him a lot of self-confidence, and Kylian needs to be constantly confident to be successful. "
Mbappé-Lottin is no more. A false electoral poster is circulating on social media, two weeks before the presidential election. The player appears on a background of green grass and blue sky, neutral gaze, the outline of a smile, and this sentence in white letters shaded with red: "For a France that puts double. Kylian 2017 ".
