Country: France
Club: Paris Saint-Germain
Position: Forward
Age: 23
Mbappé is recognized for his dribbling skills, great speed, and finishing. He is one of the best players in the world and reportedly the highest-paid.
At the age of 18, Mbappé made the second-most expensive player and most expensive teenage player distinctions when he signed for Paris Saint-Germain on an eventual permanent transfer worth €180 million[5]. While there, he won four Ligue 1 championships, three Coupes de France, is the club’s second-highest all-time leading scorer, and assisted the team in reaching their first UEFA Champions League Final in 2020.
Mbappé earned his senior debut for France in 2017 at the age of 18 on the international stage. Mbappé became the second teenager, after Pelé, to score in a World Cup Final at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He also became the youngest French player to score at a World Cup.
He scored two of the two goals that helped France win the tournament, and for his efforts, he was named the French Player of the Year and Best Young Player at the FIFA World Cup.
The FIFA FIFPro World11 in 2018 and 2019, the UEFA Team of the Year in 2018, and the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season in 2016–17, 2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021–22 all named Mbappé to their respective lists of honorees.
In 2021, he won Globe Soccer’s Best Player of the Year title. He finished as the top scorer in Ligue 1 for four seasons and earned the Golden Boy in 2017. He also won Ligue 1 Player of the Year three times.
Mbappé extended his contract with PSG until 2025 on May 21, 2022. Despite rumors of a potential transfer to Real Madrid, which led La Liga officials to protest to UEFA about the club’s prior losses. Mbappé finished the season with 28 goals to finish the season as the top scorer for the fourth consecutive season. He scored a hat trick in a 5-0 win against Metz only hours after signing a contract extension.
Mbappé finished the season with 17 assists as well, making him the only player in Ligue 1 history to hold the top scoring and assist positions simultaneously.
Play and audience interaction
Arsène Wenger has called Mbappé a “great football talent” who “serves to remind people of Thierry Henry.”
He was compared to Pelé in the media due to his brilliance and brash performances for France at the 2018 World Cup.
Mbappé is a skilled attacker who can play on either flank thanks to his talent with both feet. He frequently plays as a winger.
Due to his vision, he can create opportunities and assist teammates from the right while cutting into the center from the left wing on his better right foot. As a main striker, he can also play in the center because of his poise, accuracy, and eye for goal.
Along with his technical abilities, Mbappé is admired for his exceptional pace and close ball control when dribbling quickly, as well as for his superb movement, tactical acumen, and capacity to outwit defenders by making incisive runs into open spaces both on and off the ball.
He can stretch the defenses of opponents by timing his runs, and he also poses a serious offensive threat during counterattacks.
Nicolas Anelka, a former France international, claimed in April 2017 that Mbappé possessed the traits of a world-class player and that his ability to rush at defenses reminded him of Ronaldo from the 1996 Olympics.
