Kylian Mbappe Is the Future of Football
Few players can brag about Kylian Mbappe’s achievements at the age of 24… The Paris Saint-Germain striker turned 24 yesterday, less than 48 hours after becoming only the second player since Geoff Hurst in 1966 to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.
In total, the brilliant Frenchman has scored 12 World Cup goals in 14 matches, tying him with Brazilian legend Pele for sixth place all-time, leaving Qatar with the top scorer award.
However, his finals performance was deserving of the trophy, but leaving Qatar without the World Cup trophy, which he won as a teenager in Russia four years ago, is undeniably heartbreaking for the proven winner.
Though his heroics were somewhat in vain in the grand scheme of things, the PSG man remains defiant and confident of making another mark at the World Cup, leaving a simple message hours after the defeat, “We will return,” with the French flag.
“It’s a record World Cup. I would have preferred for him (Mbappe) to have scored, but there a lot of records have been made by players who were there,” France team coach Didier Deschamps said after the match.
“But Kylian put his footprint on this final, but not quite the footprint he wanted. His sadness at the end of the match is just like the rest of the players.”
Mbappe grew up in Bondy, a Paris suburb 11 kilometers from the city centre. He spent two years playing for Monaco, where he gained international attention, but he has lived in Paris his entire life.
Mbappe’s football statistics are, to say the least, astounding. He has 265 goals and 135 assists in 380 games. He has 36 goals for Les Bleus (sixth all-time), 190 goals for PSG, and 27 goals for AS Monaco – more than Lionel Messi (197), Cristiano Ronaldo (132), Karim Benzema, and Thierry Henry at the same age (89).
Mbappe and his explosive football style have the potential to change the game forever. With speed, strength, and finishing abilities to rival some of the greatest in history, the stage will undoubtedly belong to the Frenchman as Messi and Ronaldo’s era fades.
At the age of 24, he was on Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid football players, with an annual salary of $128 million.
Mbappe’s trophy cabinet is impressive, with a World Cup title, UEFA Nations League, five French league titles, and four Coup de la Ligue, but the 24-year-old still lacks individual awards.
Mbappe has a long way to go before he can match Ronaldo and Messi’s legacies. However, at his age, he’s accomplished things that other superstars have yet to achieve – the Ballon d’Or and FIFA Best are just around the corner.
