FUNKO POP! FOOTBALL: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)

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A World Cup winner with France, Mbappe could easily have chosen to play for Cameroon or Algeria. His mother’s roots are Algerian and his father is from Cameroon.

Mbappé has been linked with a move to Madrid for several months despite the Spanish club suffering an estimated €300m in losses due to the coronavirus pandemic. But in their accounts for last season published in July, Real said: “Current forecasts suggest that recovery to the pre-pandemic situation will not be immediate. Therefore, the club will continue with the cost-containment efforts it has made so far.” Antoine Griezmann rejected Barcelona publicly via his La Decision documentary in 2018 before moving a year later. The Frenchman was not welcomed warmly by his new, recently jilted, teammates and fans. Mbappé could face a similar sentiment from Madrid fans and players, should he eventually move to Spain. 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.Nike Vapors were the first football boots he wore. They were so coveted, he said, some teammates would even ask if they could borrow them to wear for the first half of the game! He declined.

When he trained at the AS Bondy football club they called him “the next Henry,” echoed by Arsene Wenger in 2017 when he revealed he tried to bring Mbappe to Arsenal at the time. Mbappé has described himself as a “kid with a new toy” when he gets a pair of sneakers. His first pair were the Nike Air Maxes. Although he meticulously cleaned them, they would get dirty when he went out on the field to play football. Growing up, so he says in an interview with Hypebeast in March, he would cry to his mother in an attempt to get the shoes he had his eye on. Brand sneakers were pricey, so he often had to beg his mom for the make and model he wanted.While the Premier League’s financial power may have stretched its lead on interest, prestige, resources and player-for-player (although perhaps not team-for-team) quality, the other four of the traditional big five leagues are concertinaing together in these areas. The interest generated by Mbappé’s continued presence in Ligue 1 helps the league’s status and potentially its ability to compete financially. It’s something Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was well aware of, repeatedly speaking with Mbappé as he mulled over his choices. Both Macron and the club leant heavily on Mbappé’s alleged “responsibility” to France and Ligue 1. “I heard the call of the homeland and of the capital city,” Mbappé explained. Team France – Kremlin.ru [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)] 4.The young player donated all his World Cup earnings

Mbappe has gone on to score 190 goals in 237 games for the French champions, where he plays alongside Neymar and Argentina great Lionel Messi. 2. He is a serial winner Kylian Mbappé poses with a scarf in front of fans after deciding to stay in Paris. Photograph: Julien Hekimian/PSG/Getty Images But at the age of 14, after a lot of family discussion, he turned down Liverpool and Real Madrid among others to sign for Monaco. 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. Individually, he has won the Golden Boy award - given to the best under-21 player in Europe's top flights - in 2017, been named French player of the year twice, and Ligue 1 player of the year and young player of the year three times. He was also judged to be the best young player at the 2018 World Cup and been Ligue 1's top goalscorer in four seasons.

Aged 16 years and 347 days, he became the youngest player in the club's history - beating a record set by France and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry in 1994 - when he appeared as an 88th-minute substitute against Caen. He added: “With him, we talked a lot, he always told us the same things. He always promised he wouldn’t leave the club [for] free. It [Real’s bid] is less than we paid for him. But it’s the way Real Madrid does it that we don’t like.” Pelé went even further, joking in another tweet: “If Kylian keeps equalling my records like this I may have to dust my boots off again..” The 2021 Champions League match between PSG and Barcelona is one instance where Mbappe’s speed was well used. Mbappe’s spectacular solo goal gave PSG an early lead in the second leg of the Round of 16 match. The Barcelona defenders were left in his wake as Mbappe sped away from them after receiving the ball in his own half.