What are some interesting facts about Kylian Mbappe? 1. “It’s not bad, Messi is watching me” GOAL Everything you need to know about the French superstar! Kylian Mbappe is a French footballer who plays as a forward for Paris Saint-Germain and the French national team. In the 2018/2019 season, Messi won the European Golden Shoe with 36 league goals while Mbappe was just 3 behind on 33. In an interview with France Football in December 2019 Mbappe said he found out that Messi had one eye on him all the way. “I saw that I could maybe get this title of the top goalscorer in Europe. … But, facing off against me, was Messi. I would score twice on a weekend, he would go and score three; I would score three, he would score four!” “It was so crazy that I spoke with Ousmane [Dembele] about it. ‘This is crazy! Is he doing this on purpose?’ He responded: ‘Of course, he is looking at you!’ I said to myself: ‘Ah, not bad, Messi is surveilling me.’ It is flattering to see that such a player is not overlooking you.” 2. Cristiano Ronaldo was Kylian Mbappe’s idol These days it isn’t just Messi treating Mbappe as a rival, Ronaldo is clear that France’s shooting star is the future too: “Mbappe is the future and the present. He’s a fantastic player, very fast, and he will be the future,” Ronaldo said via Omnisport and Fox Sport Asia. But just a few years ago things were very different, Mbappe’s bedroom was wallpapered with posters of the Portuguese national hero. There’s a famous old photo with a young Kylian posing in a green jacket surrounded by a shrine of Ronaldo photos. In 2019 Mbappe recreated the photo, but this time the pictures are of himself holding the World Cup (Which neither Ronaldo nor Messi has managed), winning Ligue 1 with Neymar and a cut out of his TIME magazine photo cover. Times can change quickly when you have the talent and dedication of Kylian Mbappe. 3. Mbappe faster than Usain Bolt? Is Kylian Mbappe really faster than Usain Bolt? The easy answer is: No. When the French flyer scored that incredible goal against Monaco in 2019, laying a ball off in his own half before scorching through the centre of the pitch to finish off a fine move, the speed he clocked went viral. Mbappe reached 38kph (23.61mph) in his determined dash from the halfway line, faster than the 37.58kph (23.35mph) that Bolt averaged when he set his 9.58 second 100m world record in 2009. But Bolt reached 42.7km/h (27.8mph) in that world-record sprint in Berlin and over 100 metres from a block start – sorry Kylian, sorry Cristiano – no footballer alive is getting close to prime Bolt. 4. Only Pele was a younger World Cup winner At 19 years old, Mbappe was the first teenager to score in a World Cup final since 1958, 60 years earlier. The only other teen sensation to do it was Pele, who was 17 when he scored in Brazil’s 5-2 World Cup final win over Sweden. Mbappe scored in France’s 4-2 victory over Croatia in 2018 and afterwards, the Brazilian icon tweeted his congrats. “Only the second teenager to have scored a goal in a #WorldCupFinal! Welcome to the club, @KMbappe – it’s great to have some company!” “If Kylian keeps equalling my records like this I may have to dust my boots off again..” joked Pelé. 5. Mbappe: a family of athletes Kylian Mbappe could have been a French handball star. Things might have been different had a young Kylian followed in his mother Fayza Lamar’s footsteps, she played Division 1 handball in France back in the 90s. Luckily for football fans, he chose to follow Dad into his sport instead, his father Wilfried was a footballer who played for AS Bondy, the local team that represents the banlieue of Bondy where Kylian Mbappe grew up. In fact, the whole family are athletes, Mbappé’s adopted brother, Jirès Kembo-Ekoko, is a professional footballer too who’s played with Rennes and is currently in Turkey with Bursapor. Then there’s Ethan Mbappé, Kylian’s little bro’ who is quietly on the rise at Barcelona’s famed La Masia Academy where Messi mastered his trade. French coach Jean-Claude Lafargue says the family has another potential star in the making: “He’s a kid who has a lot of quality. He’s a very elegant midfielder. He’s very comfortable, very intelligent. He’s an emerging player, that’s for sure.” He runs like The Flash. Kylian Mbappé loves sneakers. He resides in the 16th arrondissement. He is history’s second teenager to score in a World Cup final. Kylian Mbappé is from the suburbs of Paris. He donated all his World Cup earnings. He Had Options To Play For Alegria or Cameroon. GOAL Everything you need to know about the French superstar! Kylian Mbappe is a French footballer who plays as a forward for Paris Saint-Germain and the French national team.