Sunday, July 15, 2018. A young French footballer of Cameroonian and Algerian descent lifts the World Cup with his teammates from the French national team. He is twenty years old. He has just defeated Croatia 4-2 and has also had an extraordinary tournament. With four goals, including two against Argentina and one in the final, he definitively reveals himself to the world.
He is slowly but surely making a place for himself in the hearts of the French, not far from Zidane and Platini. The supporters of the French national team are already dreaming of his future exploits, and the young lad from the Parisian suburbs is not going to disappoint them. Four years later, in the next World Cup, he dazzles the world once again with his talent. He scores a hat-trick in the final against Argentina and a total of eight goals throughout the competition. Despite France's defeat, he is unquestionably the best player of the tournament, alongside Lionel Messi.
With his club, Paris Saint-Germain, success is not as resounding, but Kylian is still the top scorer for the team year after year. Without him, PSG probably wouldn't have reached the Champions League final in 2020 or won as many domestic titles. However, once the World Cup in Qatar was over, the beautiful story became less magical.
Around this time, Mbappé began to threaten PSG with a move to Real Madrid. Throughout the summer, fans of both clubs awaited news of his departure, arrival, contract extension, and the only thing that finally seemed to help him make his decision was the massive contract offered by his president. An extremely lucrative deal that likely secured financial stability for his family for generations. It was from this moment on that the young phenomenon appeared more as a money-driven individual than a soccer artist with golden feet.
Last June, the same process repeated itself. No one really knew whether he would stay at PSG or move to Real Madrid. Kylian adopted a very ambiguous attitude, only to eventually decide to stay in Paris but refusing to extend his contract. This refusal infuriated his president, the Qatari Nasser al-Khelaïfi, who couldn't understand how a player to whom he had given everything could cost them so much money by leaving for free the following season. The two men quarreled for a few weeks but eventually reached an agreement to restart their relations and for the Parisian forward to return to the field and help his team to perform.
Today, Kylian Mbappé is a free agent. He has the option to re-sign with Paris at the end of the season or to move to Real Madrid. The problem is that the young prodigy continues to remain silent and let doubt linger around him. A few days ago, he stated in a press conference that he had not yet made a decision about his future. His admirers, in turn, have decided to stop loving him blindly.
Parisians hold it against him for not being clear and unable to declare once and for all his love for his hometown. Despite the dozens of goals he scored for the club, the legendary evenings, and the dazzling technical feats he achieved, supporters need a bit of honesty. They would have been less resentful if he had left for Real with conviction a year or two ago than staying with them under these conditions.
On the Madrid side, the excitement has faded. The Castilians had stars in their eyes when they heard this exceptional player declare that he dreamed of playing for Real since his childhood. They have experienced so many beautiful moments with the great Zinedine Zidane that the arrival of another French player of the same caliber pleased them greatly. But if the most beautiful woman in the world has been winking at you for three years but refuses to leave her current husband, leaving you in suspense, she will seem much less attractive to you as the months go by. This is precisely what is happening at the moment with Kylian Mbappé.
A recent survey published in the press about the favorite personalities of the French shows that the young footballer, who was on the podium last year, is not even in the top 20 anymore. He is ranked 22nd. If he does not want to fall too far behind in the hearts of football lovers and let the Englishman Jude Bellingham or the Dane Erling Haaland permanently surpass him, he would do well to take these alarming signs into account and stop playing with our feelings.
