Kylian Mbappe

 Kylian Mbappe.

This is the story of the little boy who just wanted to be the greatest footballer the world would ever see. He idolised his boyhood heroes, adored the game with a vehement passion and then fulfilled his ambition to play on some of the grandest stages that football had to offer. He was the official definition of a Roy of the Rovers comic book striker and followed wherever he went amid much acclaim and adulation. He was the best, the most precocious, a child in a man's body, reaching his adolescence years before his team mates, successfully and superlatively.

He knew he'd be famous and celebrated one day because his coaches, family and friends had said as much. They were his contemporaries and peers. Of course they had his best interests at heart and never betrayed him for one moment. He was driven, ambitious, fired up, pumped, self motivated, knowing exactly where he was going, fuelled by naturally human desires, the boy who had to be a man and knew that global celebrity would be his to revel in and cherish well before his voice had broken.

Last night BBC One's excellent documentary on French striker Kylian Mbappe was a revealing insight into a lavishly talented, world class striker who was destined to reach the top. Now, this warmly flattering anecdote about M'bappe wasn't the first time that footballers who were years ahead of their time would be exposed to the dazzling glare of publicity. There are hundreds of examples of players who never quite made the grade, the ones who had put in all the hard yards, trained rigorously, eaten and drunk sensibly and then emerged with flying colours with a permanent first team place every week.

We were reminded once again of the wide ranging spectrum of Mbappe's rags to riches account, the fairy tale, meteoric rise to sensational stardom in the pantheon of world football. Some players, of course, fell flat on their faces when the TV cameras were turned towards them and the rarefied world of social media had cast their critical eyes towards the young Frenchman. The ones who slipped and stumbled, climbing that forbidding ladder to the summit of the game, simply vanished without trace because success had come far too quickly.

But we were told last night about a young player who flourished beautifully before our eyes and would never look back. From his earliest days at Monaco, M'bappe would, quite obviously, stand out from the rest of the crowd. He had lightning pace, peeling off the last defender quite brilliantly and then home in on goal with a confidence and abundant skill that very few had ever seen. He would invade penalty areas like a marauding army, digging for victory, hunting down his full back in opposition and then firing home goals with a purpose, conviction and doggedness that made the world sit up in astonished recognition.

M'bappe will, of course, be at the very heart of France's bid to become European Champions yet again in Germany in a couple of weeks time. To say that he has nothing to prove since he has now a Euro and World Cup winning medal in his capacious pockets would be a gross understatement. He was the one who, with the utmost humility and composure, steered home a penalty in a losing cause, as France sadly came a cropper in one of the most artistically rewarding World Cup Finals of all time against a Lionel Messi inspired Argentina. Qatar 2022 was undoubtedly  the finest World Cup for both Messi and Mbappe.

Ironically Messi, by a country mile, was acknowledged as one of the most majestic of all football talents, a world class gem and it would be Messi who would grab all the headlines and claim the World Cup that had always been so agonisingly elusive. Mbappe had been where Messi would be now but Messi would take the honours. The young Frenchmen though was still a callow youth, impressionable perhaps but still receptive to sage advice from his elders and only too willing to learn and absorb.

At Bondy, where Mbappe had received his formal tuition and his football education, this was essentially a learning curve for him, that developmental home where Mbappe would find common ground with the kind of youngsters who were also desperate to be even half as good as him. Initially Brondy would not become his nursery, more a transitional point between childhood and those formative teenage years.

France had already several generations of outstanding strikers, defenders, midfielders and wingers to gloat over. They were all reared and nurtured by patient and understanding coaches who couldn't wait to discover yet more stars of stage and screen. They rolled off the production line with an almost consistent regularity. There was Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Lillian Thuram, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Viera, Zinedine Zidane, Olivier Giroud and a whole host of others who slotted seamlessly into a France side that needed no prompting or encouragement because they knew they were exceptional. In the blink of an eye they would lift European Championship and World Cup trophies.

Throughout yesterday night's illuminating spotlight on Kylian Mbappe there was a sense here that the local boy had made good, that nothing would stop him on his relentless crusade to the very pinnacle to world football. There were the playground games of football on his boyhood council estate where football would be digested and then devoured with a hungry relish. But Mbappe had much more to give to the rest of his friends. He had the element of the spectacular, the poise on the ball that only few could ever aspire to, let alone match and then that instinctive knowledge of where his colleagues were on the pitch with an ability to turn the last defender and then score from ridiculous angles.

The programme also highlighted Clairefontaine, the French academy, fundamentally the place where it had all begun for Mbappe. Deeep in lush forests and shrubbery, Clairefontaine was a footballing hotbed for young French players who probably held a secret admiration for the literary Proust and the painterly Matisse. In 1998 France had won the World Cup with a side that had everything; versatility and adaptability, finesse and flexibility. They had come through the academy with all the technical equipment at their disposal. They had exquisite ball control, vision and the kind of passing range that the likes of Germany and Brazil would inherit in later years.

But as we saw last night Mbappe was never fazed or star struck by all of the fame and wealth that had now become his divine right. Of course there were the slightly arrogant folding of arms to acknowledge one of his many goals and then the slide across the ground  on his knees just to make absolutely sure. But Mbappe has yet to be completely carried away by the excessive praise, the generous comments, the kudos, all of that flannel and fuss that would normally accompany the journey of a young sporting genius.

But between the first and final whistle there has been nothing pretentious or anything of the spoilt prima donna about him. Mbappe still goes home to his family and still finds a comfortable place in their living room, kitchen or garden. There are- or so it would seem- none of the airs or graces that might have led to the downfall of those players who had too much and then threw it all away. The youngster from Monaco has been taught the rudiments of the game the right way and that's the way it should be.

You could be forgiven for thinking that this is the way football in France has always been conducted. You give your youngsters their chance and they'll run with the baton because they love the game and they're grateful for the chance. Some of the more nostalgic types still remember another golden age for French football. They recall Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine, both lethal goal scorers and creators par excellence, players who elevated the game to a plateau that could hardly get any higher.

Both Kopa and Fontaine belonged to an era when footballers were treated with as much reverence as they are today, regarded as icons, poster boys, the homegrown, the respectable and presentable. Rather like Mbappe, both Kopa and Fontaine did much to capture the spirit of 1950s France. They were made from the most classical stock, goal scorers who simply snapped up goals galore for fun. But the French had already proved their point and they knew that today's kid would probably break more goal scoring records. 

And so we have Kylian Mbappe. In a couple of weeks time the whole of Europe will be watching with some fascination, perhaps realising that they may find it hard to find anybody who will surpass the goal scoring feats of the French child of nature. When a young Pele trapped the ball on his thigh so deliciously in scoring his famous goal against Sweden in the 1958 World Cup Final in Sweden and Maradonna once waltzed through a gasping English defence to score a wondrous solo goal for Argentina, most of us thought we'd seen it all. Maradona would lift the World Cup because this was his time. Mbappe may be thinking that Germany could be his country, his moment in the sun. Euro 2024 awaits breathlessly.

By the time Mbappe signed for Paris Saint Germain, football looked forwards rather than backwards. Mbappe had already been made captain of France and that had been no small feat. With the esteemed likes of Antoine Griezmann now in his veteran years, it is safe to assume that Mbappe is in line to succession for the striker's role. Already the wise football commentators and social history observers are preparing their laptops for the ultimate judgment on Mbappe. This is the right time and place for Kylian Mbappe to find his true worth, to lap up yet more flattery and then, quite possibly, win another trophy. Euro 2024 could be his year and his tournament. We will see.