Why grounded Kylian Mbappe will go all the way to the very top of the game

The “Mbappé soap opera”, as Kylian Mbappé refers to the clamour for information and stories about him, has moved to an even bigger stage with his remarkable performance in France’s last-16 victory over Argentina in the sweltering heat of Kazan.

Make no mistake this is not only the most talented young footballer on the planet but also the most self-possessed, mature and one who is fully aware of exactly what is going on around him.

The surprise will be if the 19-year-old forward does not become the world super-star, and a Ballon D’Or winner, for the next generation.

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The forward is already the most valuable. In fact on Sunday morning the response from those close to his club, Paris Saint-Germain, who paid 180 million euros for him, a deal that went through this summer after a season-long loan deal from Monaco, was simply that the fee now looks a bargain.

That is no exaggeration. Mbappé is already the second most expensive player in football history, after the 222 million euros PSG paid Barcelona to sign Neymar, and if he was for sale he would command even more than that. Comfortably more.

Not that there is any chance that PSG will sell him or have need to sell him as they will comfortably fulfil their Uefa Financial Fair Play stipulations.

Any stories attempting to link Mbappé to Real Madrid or Manchester City are wide of the mark. One only has to look at  the relationship between City’s Abu Dhabi owners and PSG’s Qatari owners to know that City is a non-starter and while he may eventually end up at Real that is one for the future having turned them down last year.

Mbappé will stay at PSG and not least because he is happy, it is where he wants to be and he knows that time is on his side. He knows that clubs will come calling having already turned down Real, City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Arsenal and so on and so on.

Joining PSG was to “come home”, Mbappé said, when he moved to the team he supports, and there is an indication as to who he is and what motivates him in the fact that the day he signed he travelled to another engagement back at the local club where it all started aged six - AS Bondy.

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Mbappé has maintained his links, not least because his father, originally from Cameroon, still coaches there. Mbappé is a regular visitor. That day he was greeted with a new slogan relating to him and to the area “where everything is possible”.

I was with Mbappé that day having been invited to conduct his first newspaper interview since making his move to PSG and as he answered my questions it was clear that he was grounded, motivated, and had a plan.

He was also aware of what was going on - and interested in the interest - and was not remotely overawed as others would have been.  He was immaculately turned out in a dark suit, white shirt and tie and it almost looked like a young film star or business entrepreneur closing a deal on his next venture.

Hence the quote about the “Mbappé soap opera”. “I am aware of the risk with all the media attention, all the glitz and glamour around football,” Mbappv told me. “And that was the only piece of advice my father gave me about my future – to stay myself. I know where I come from.” It made returning to Paris all the more understandable.

I have met him since, on three other occasions, and he even climbed down from the PSG team coach after they played Celtic in the Champions League in Glasgow last autumn to say hello.

His only mistake so far in his career was a bleach blond hair experiment which he soon ditched after being teased by his team-mates.

Mbappé’s sense of perspective and understanding was evident after the win over Argentina who he had torn apart with his pace and skill, scoring two goals and announcing himself as a world star - if we did not already know that already.

It was Arsène Wenger, when he was Arsenal manager, who compared Mbappé to Pele and as he attempted to sign him. The pair met but Mbappé declined the offer.

The Pele comparison was made again - along with one likening him to the Brazilian Ronaldo - in the press conference after Mbappé was handed his man-of-the-match award for knocking out Argentina and not least because the Frenchman had become the first teenager to score two goals in a game at a World Cup since Pele in 1958. "Let's put things into context, Pele is another category," Mbappé said.

It has been an incredible rise, an incredible story. Two seasons ago Mbappé was still being driven to training by his mother, Fayza, and he has not forgotten that or the fact that the last campaign was his first full one as a professional footballer.

There was another quote, during his interview with me, that sums up his approach. “Where will I be?” Mbappé said, considering what he could eventually achieve. “That is the source of my motivation.”

The soap opera is only going to get bigger and bigger especially if Mbappé continues to star at a World Cup where Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have already departed and there is room for a new hero.

There is no limit to what he can achieve and not least because he is so grounded.