THE GOLDEN BOY : KYLIAN ADESANMI MBAPPE
Kylian Mbappe has just won the prestigious Golden Boy award for the best player in Europe under the age of 21. Mbappe burst into the spot light towards the end of the 2015/2016 season, coming through the Monaco Reserves into the first team making him the youngest-ever first-team player at the age of 16 years, 347 days. Thus breaking the record previously set by Thierry Henry. He scored his first senior goal for Monaco at the age of 17 years and 62 days, he became the youngest first team goalscorer in Monaco’s history, displacing Henry in the process once again. Here we take a look at the Playing style, Goal scoring stats and Individual achievements which have made young Kylian Mbappe the Golden boy and a world star.
PLAYING STYLE
The young forward thrives on pace and acceleration on and off the ball, which is quite similar to that of French legend Thierry Henry. An explosive attacking player who likes to play as a wide forward and left winger which makes him a nuisance to defenders with his blistering pace and acceleration coming through from the wings accompanied with a powerful right foot. A player who likes to cut inside from the wings to get shots way with his strong right foot and create scoring chances for team-mates. Mbappe possesses close control dribbling with a low center of gravity which makes him hard to be dispossessed and excel in a possession based set-up. Lethal on the counter attack also, cause of the pace and acceleration he possesses and relishes taking defenders on, with high confidence to try and use skills regardless of the opponent.
GOAL SCORING
Coming through the reserves into the first-team Mbappe scored just one senior team in 14 appearances for Monaco in the 2015/2016 season, but as he became a first-team regular Mbappe scored a total of 26 goals in 44 appearances for Monaco in the 2016/2017 season. He scored 15 goals in 29 appearances in the League, 3 goals in 2 appearances in the Coupe de France, 3 goals in 3 appearances in the Coupe de La Ligue and 6 goals in 9 appearances in the UEFA champions league as Monaco reached the semi-finals. The forward also has international goals to his name scoring 7 in 11 apps for the French U-19 side, but not so impressive in the French senior squad with just 1 goal in 8 apps.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Claudio Ranieri the former Leicester city boss labeled young Mbappe as the “Future of great teams” and he has lived up to this statement, with his impressive form and skills he earned him self a transfer to French giants Paris Saint-Germain on loan but with a an option to buy for €180 million which would make him the most expensive teenager in history. For such a young player, Mbappe has achieved quite some feat in just one season at the top flight and broke European records in the process. Mbappe was named the Ligue 1 young player of the year, featured in the Ligue 1 Team of the year and UEFA Champions league team of the year for 2016/2017 season. Mbappe is also the youngest player to score 8 goals in the Champions League beating greats like Messi and Raul.
Mbappe since his transfer to PSG has formed a prolific attacking trio with Edison Cavani and Neymar,which has been already regarded as the deadliest attacking trio currently in world football. Mbappe has developed a sort of bromance with team mate Neymar, making comments on how he’d like to assist Neymar in getting the famous prize of world best and Neymar has also responded saying he’d also like to help Mbappe in his career like how Lionel Messi helped in his time at Barcelona.
The young man has a shown himself to be a bright talent with a lot to offer, but can he be a future great and join the likes of Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and even French legend Thierry Henry ??
