The Wall Street Journal, a business publication, recently published an interview with Kylian Mbappé, a French soccer player who is seen as the natural successor to Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo of Manchester United.
According to the article, the PSG forward, who competes in French Ligue 1 alongside Messi, is a representative of a new breed of athletes who are extending the boundaries of soccer stardom.
Perhaps they are recalling former Manchester United stars and soccer players George Best and David Becham, who in their prime helped spread the popularity of football far beyond the boundaries of the soccer field.
Nevertheless, the WSJ reports that Mbappé, who is only 23 years old, has dedicated his entire life to high performance, including eating and sleeping properly.
Well, in many ways, this is similar to the rigid rules of boxing greats like Smoking Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali the GOAT, who spent a lot of time in the ring but gave the sport a reputation that extended beyond the brawls between these titans of sport.
Although boxing has lost its appeal since Ali’s passing and is no longer the same sport, we must admit that soccer appears to be an eternally beautiful game. And players like Mbappé and Ronaldo are here to push the limits of the game.
Most Painful Soccer Moment
Mbappe has acknowledged that he felt like crying after PSG’s Champions League final defeat to Bayern Munich in 2020.
In his short time playing football, Mbappe has accomplished a lot, but he has not yet captured a Champions League championship. It is arguably the only blemish on his otherwise very impressive career, even though he is only 23 years old.
“When we lost the Champions League with Paris. We lost in the final. You finish the game, you take your medal, and you see the cup, but that’s not for you. That’s an odd feeling, but that’s life. To be honest, I wanted to cry. You just want to cry. You want to be alone. [But] it’s a part of your history, and you have to improve to come back and win,” he said in the interview.
THE nice gestures of celebrity players towards their contemporaries or the fans are seldom highlighted by the media.
Here I must note and congratulate Frenchman Kylian Mbappe who recently apologised after hitting a fan with a wayward shot during the warm-up of the World Cup semi-final between France and Morocco.
During the warm-up for the match, the PSG player missed the target with one of his shots and the ball flew into the stands. Unfortunately, it found the face of a France supporter sitting in one of the front rows and the man looked to be in some pain after being hit by it.
FAN SURPRISED
Mbappe noticed this and quickly climbed the advertising hoardings to check up on him himself, patting him on the arm.
Remaining dazed, the fan didn’t initially realise who it was that was doing so as he received help from those sat next to him. Once he realised and looked at Mbappe, the forward apologised again before returning to the pitch.
The 23-year-old would have no doubt cheered the man up by making both France goals possible in the Morocco win, and will do so even more if he can lead his country to Sunday’s second World Cup triumph in a row.
To do that, he’ll have the get the better of Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Lionel Messi who is looking to win the tournament for the first time in his career. With it being his last chance to do so, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
BEST PLAYERS
Mbappé is considered one of the best players in the world, renowned for his dribbling abilities, exceptional speed and finishing.
To track his record, he was born in Paris and raised in nearby Bondy, Mbappé began his senior club career in 2015 playing for Monaco, where he won the Ligue 1 title. In 2017, aged 18, he signed for Paris Saint-Germain on an eventual permanent transfer worth €180 million, making him the second-most-expensive player and most expensive teenage player.
At international level, Mbappé made his senior debut for France in 2017, at age 18. At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, he became the youngest French player to score at a World Cup, and became the second teenager, after Pelé, to score in a World Cup Final.
Football fan pages are going ablaze as the new star on the block, Kylian Mbappe has scored more goals than the previous top French footballer in the World Cup. Keep in mind that Mbappe is only 23-years-old.
Currently, the Qatar World Cup is Mbappe’s second World Cup. Thierry Henry has participated in four World Cups from 1997 till 2010. There is a lot of buzz about this, some are pro Mbappe and some not entirely.
Now especially that France beat Morocco in the semi-finals for the World Cup, he has a strong chance in helping his home country win this year’s World Cup.
Fans argument about Mbappe vs Henry
According to a Facebook post in a prominent football group, a fan posted that Mbappe has done the near impossible in scoring more than a veteran who had more chances to do as such. Some sources say Mbappe had scored seven, or nine goals.
Fans stated that the quality football is not the same as when Henry was a star. Many do agree that Mbappe is an amazing scorer, but the competition today is not as tough as it was many years ago.
Others stated that they aren’t obsessed about which players score the most goals but the fact that they care about which country is the best. Some naysayers claimed that scoring is just an opportunity, not the actual skills needed on the field.
Furthermore, a tweet stating that he is taking a much shorter time to reach his 250 career goals when compared to Ronaldo and Messi. Some are even claiming that he is the next greatest of all time.
Naysayers are claiming that he has an advantage of being quick on the field. Contributing to the speed he has is his younger age. However, fans defended Mbappe stating that he needs other skills as well in order to score goals, such as precision, and the ability to target well.
However, fans attributed his playing in the French league in helping score his 250th goal sooner than others. Some claimed that he should start playing for the Premier League or the LaLiga in order to get some real competition.
Talks on how unfair it is to the midfielders, defenders and keepers as even though they contribute to the goal scored, they are rarely mentioned in the statistics.
Kylian Mbappe has recently surpassed Pele with the highest number of goals in the World Cup below the age of 24. He has scored a grand total of eight goals. He still has to beat Pele’s record as the latter has scored 12 goals during his World Cup participations
Mbappe managed to break the 60-year-old record. Recently, Mbappe assisted Olivier Giroud, making him the top goalscorer in France national team history. Giroud scored his 52nd goal, surpassing the legendary Thierry Henry.
While Mbappe struggled for the majority of the day, he managed to convert two excellent finishes on either side of the top corner. He now has the same number of FIFA World Cup goals as Lionel Messi, but he has played in three fewer World Cups.
However, the unfortunate news of the Brazilian legend’s declining health is saddening news. His contribution to football will never be forgotten, and hopefully the younger players such as Mbappe, Haaland and others would remember their previous generations of great players.
Fan’s thoughts Mbappe surpassing one of Pele’s records
Kylian Mbappe passes Pele for most World Cup goals scored by a men's player before turning 24 years old (8) 😮👏 pic.twitter.com/uJLZDH6LWO
Fans are claiming that Mbappe will break all records in the next World Cup. Others stated that a lot of the countries aren’t playing as well as they did back in the day, hence, it would give the younger players more opportunity to break records.
There were criticisms over the record as a fan stated “Why 24, why not 23,22,25 etc? It’s almost as if the parameters for this stat were intended to give a favourable comparison to Mbappe over Pele.”
Other fans agreed with this fan as the age number appears to be a random one and it is not often a comparable age as usually it would be U21 (Under 21) or U18 (Under 18). Statements on Mbappe idolising Ronaldo and being inspired by him were in the mix of the conversation.
The best irony in the conversation was that Ronaldo and Messi fans vehemently hate each other in the comment section. It is unclear why in all football related news, there will always be this exact argument against the two great legends.
Furthermore, Pele fans stated that in his early 20s, where he was playing his second World Cup, he was injured. Hence this would give other players the opportunity to beat his still impressive records.
Say what you like about the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar but it produced some amazing football, especially in the nail-biting final. The clash between Argentina and France, the defending champions was filled with nail biting tension.
It looked like a forgone conclusion with the Argentinians leading by two goals to zero until the dying moments of the game when French star, Kylian Mbappe produced two goals in the dying moments of the game and then proceeded to match the goal by Argentina’ s captain, Lionel Messi, thus forcing a penalty shoot-out.
Messi’s greatness
While the result was heart-breaking for the French, the victory was a nice send off for Mr. Messi, who is hailed as one of the greatest players ever (GOAT) and yet, somehow the biggest prize in global soccer always seemed to elude him.
Unfortunately for Mr. Messi, he’s from the country that gave us Diego Maradona, who is considered one of the Gods of modern soccer. So, for all his achievements at the club level, the inability to bring home soccer’s greatest prize meant that as far as most Argentinians were concerned, Mr. Messi was a shadow of Mr. Maradona.
So, for Mr. Messi, this victory was a key moment for him to come out of Mr. Maradona’s shadow and there is no doubt that as this is being written, that life in Argentina is being focused on him. It took a glance at an article in the Atlantic for me to understand that Mr. Messi’s triumph goes beyond soccer.
The writer makes the point that Mr. Messi’s moment of greatest success comes at what is effectively the dying days of his playing career. Mr. Messi is 35-years-old, which for a professional athlete is geriatric. Yet, despite his age, Mr. Messi remains a force of the field and more importantly, Mr. Messi has managed to do what very few superstars have managed to do – he’s evolved and ensured that whatever success is more than just about him. At 35, he’s not as fast as he used to be but he’s grown wiser and smarter in his playing style and how it gels with the rest of the team.
There is no doubt that there are geniuses in just about every field who can make the difference between success and failure. In modern soccer, there was the example of Diego Maradona who not only led Argentina to victory in 1986 but managed to bring an inferior team to the final in 1990. In rugby union, there was the example of the late Jonah Lomu, who cut through everyone’s defence like a heated rod going through butter.
However, modern team sport is about strategy and while have a genius of the field can make the difference, there is a danger of becoming over reliant on the single guy. After 1986, every team that faced Argentina had one clear strategy – contain Diego Maradona. In rugby union, Mr. Lomu made headlines in the 1995 World Cup until he reached the finals and the Springboks developed a strategy called – contain Mr. Lomu.
Unfortunately for Mr. Messi, the strategy used against him in so many world cups were the same as the one used after 1986. From the day the press started hailing him as the world’s best player. Everything was about containing him.
So, for this world cup, Mr. Messi made his team greater than himself and his contribution was that of a brilliant conductor brining out the best in people rather that single virtuoso. At 35, Mr. Messi wasn’t going to go toe-to-toe with the 23-year-old Mr. Mbappe. He was going to use his team. Mr. Mbappe’s hat-trick was undoubtedly phenomenal and he deserves the Golden Boot award for most goals scored. However, the ultimate prize is not the Gold Boot but the World Cup.
This point isn’t limited to soccer. I think of a law firm I was trying to solicit business from. The Managing Partner made the point his goal was not to become the star performer but to ensure that the cases went to the right lawyers in his firm and that all his lawyers would grow become better lawyers thus ensuring his firm produced good quality work.
Yes, super stars in business are good to have just as they are in team sports. However, businesses that have a strategy of working around a single star have a way of vanishing when said star no longer performs like a star or retires or dies. Stars also have a way of forgetting that the things that made them successful don’t last forever.
As the writer of the Atlantic article points out, just as Mr. Messi understood that at 35, he had to evolve and be the best 35-year-old player, his Portuguese rival, Cristiano Ronaldo was trying to play as a man ten-years younger and failed at it. Nobody doubts that Mr. Ronaldo is a great player but at 35 he isn’t as sharp as he was at 27 and its particularly noticeable at the highest levels of international competition.
The same can be said of people stuck in old paradigms and try to operate as they did a decade ago. Technology changes, people change and the market changes. What was great a decade ago may no longer be great in the current situation. So, as one should always be self-aware and evolve in order to stay great as Mr. Messi did.
* Suresh Nair is an award-winning sports journalist who is also a qualified international coach and international referee instructor.
Real Madrid aficionado Carlos Alcaraz is a huge fan of Jude Bellingham, the team’s newest sensation. He is adamant that the Englishman will eventually top the world in his field. Bellingham’s arrival in Los Angeles in June has been exciting after stellar performances at Birmingham City and Borussia Dortmund.
He has scored four goals in only three games this season. The talented young midfielder has the capacity to redefine brilliance on a global scale, as seen by his remarkable rise.
Alcaraz, who spoke at the 2023 US Open press conference, praised Bellingham as “one of the world’s best” and expressed his utter joy at the Englishman’s presence at his beloved club. Real Madrid, meanwhile, has won all three games this season to maintain a flawless La Liga record. As they prepare for their match against Getafe on September 2, there is growing anticipation for a thrilling match.
Carlos Alcaraz shared; “I’m really happy to watch him play in Real Madrid. He’s such a great, talented player, one of the best in the world. I’m sure that he’s going to be the best player in the world in that position. I’m just really, really happy to have him in the team,” an article from sportskeeda.com shared.
The Bellingham factor
Though Kylian Mbappe is prepared to sign a new PSG deal, Carlos Alcaraz’s chance of seeing him at Real Madrid appears remote.
Carlos Alcaraz voiced his sincere desire for Kylian Mbappe to wear the recognizable white jersey of Real Madrid during the summer transfer window at the 2023 Canadian Open. Alcaraz, a fervent supporter of Real Madrid, praised Mbappe as one of the best players in the world, echoing the feelings of other supporters everywhere.
Mbappe’s contract with Paris Saint-Germain is reportedly set to be extended until 2026, which has Madrid supporters daydreaming about a possible purchase that might still be just out of reach.
Carlos said “Every Madridista wants to see [Kylian] Mbappe in Madrid. He is one of the best players in the world right now and all the teams love him,”
Real Madrid aficionado Carlos Alcaraz is a huge fan of Jude Bellingham, the team’s newest sensation. He is adamant that the Englishman will eventually top the world in his field. Bellingham’s arrival in Los Angeles in June has been exciting after stellar performances at Birmingham City and Borussia Dortmund.
He has scored four goals in only three games this season. The talented young midfielder has the capacity to redefine brilliance on a global scale, as seen by his remarkable rise.
Alcaraz, who spoke at the 2023 US Open press conference, praised Bellingham as “one of the world’s best” and expressed his utter joy at the Englishman’s presence at his beloved club. Real Madrid, meanwhile, has won all three games this season to maintain a flawless La Liga record. As they prepare for their match against Getafe on September 2, there is growing anticipation for a thrilling match.
Carlos Alcaraz shared; “I’m really happy to watch him play in Real Madrid. He’s such a great, talented player, one of the best in the world. I’m sure that he’s going to be the best player in the world in that position. I’m just really, really happy to have him in the team,” an article from sportskeeda.com shared.
Though Kylian Mbappe is prepared to sign a new PSG deal, Carlos Alcaraz’s chance of seeing him at Real Madrid appears remote.
Carlos Alcaraz voiced his sincere desire for Kylian Mbappe to wear the recognizable white jersey of Real Madrid during the summer transfer window at the 2023 Canadian Open. Alcaraz, a fervent supporter of Real Madrid, praised Mbappe as one of the best players in the world, echoing the feelings of other supporters everywhere.
Mbappe’s contract with Paris Saint-Germain is reportedly set to be extended until 2026, which has Madrid supporters daydreaming about a possible purchase that might still be just out of reach.
Carlos said “Every Madridista wants to see [Kylian] Mbappe in Madrid. He is one of the best players in the world right now and all the teams love him,” an article from sportskeeda.com shared.
Fans of Real Madrid are in for a surprise as Kylian Mbappé’s contract extension at PSG is anticipated, as there is a special private release clause scheduled to take effect in the summer of 2024. The French star’s trip to Spain may depend on this hidden arrangement, heightening the intrigue surrounding the current transfer controversy.
