The story you didn’t know about the young Frenchman, who surprised from the lower categories of AS Monaco
Son of Brazilians and born in Portugal, Leonardo Miramar he remembers in detail the first times he saw a Kylian Mbappé in the under-19 team of Monaco. Although he was very young, the star of the PSG, Who faced the Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, he was already showing the talent that would captivate the world years later.
“He was about 16 when we trained with the Monaco B team, which had much older boys, 20 years old. In the one-on-one exercise, he destroyed the opponents. He took the defenders and left them to all on the ground, it was an ugly thing (laughs). We said, ‘Wow, the guy killed them all,’ “the striker, currently on RWD Molenbeek in Belgium, told ESPN.com.br.
Although he was three years younger than the age limit in the category, the Frenchman remained.
“Mbappé had a lot of speed and ability to define very well. In the first five games of the Under-19 he already scored 10 goals. He scored goals very easily.”
“It was common in the basic forces when a player stood out, to give him a nickname of Brazilian stars, mainly Ronaldinho Gaucho. Mbappé was called ‘Kylianinho’ because he was very good with the ball. He liked that nickname,” he explained. .
Despite his great talent, his former teammates saw French as an easy-to-treat person on a day-to-day basis.
“We used to play a lot off the court because he kept making his older teammates angry. He got along well with everyone and we liked to joke. He was a very polite and nice guy,” he said.
Leonardo states that other boys in the youth categories of Monaco they were as popular as Mbappé at the time, however, the PSG striker was the only one who managed to become a high-level player.
“He was considered a very big talent, but he also looked like a lot of others going through the basics. When he got on the first team, they saw that he was different from the others because he came with great maturity and gained confidence.”
After only one year in the under-19 team, Mbappé debut with Monaco in the 2014/2015 season.
“We were wondering if he would perform so well in the first professional division and he kept his level. It’s very special. The following year, he made the jump to the first team and I didn’t see him again (laughs).” .
Since then, the striker has established himself as one of the great names in football, being champion of the 2018 World Cup with France at just 19 years old.