Kylian Mbappe is fresh off an outstanding performance in Russia, leading Les Bleus to their first World Cup title since 1998.
Kylian Mbappe is only 19-years old. Despite his young age, he’s already lifted football’s most prized trophy; The World Cup.
Mbappe was a huge part of France’s World Cup squad that took home the top prize earlier this month in Russia. The PSG star netted four times in seven matches and was a threat up front every single game.
Here’s a fact to put his age into perspective. When France won their first World Cup ever back in 1998, Mbappe wasn’t even born yet.
Pretty amazing to think how talented the teenager is at this stage in his career. He’s the youngest player to score in a World Cup since Pele did at 17-years old back in 1958.
World Cup performance
Mbappe was France’s ultimate sparkplug on the attack, making opposing defenses look foolish, including this outstanding run from 18 to 18 against Argentina:
This was arguably one of Mbappe’s most impressive runs throughout the tournament. He took the ball from his own 18-yard box, weaved in and out among Argentinian players, used his blazing speed and creative footwork to soar past all of them, then drew a foul in the box that led to an Antoine Greizmann penalty.
Mbappe also scored twice in the 4-3 victory, calmly placing both shots precisely into the bottom corners of the net. He really showed in this world cup that he has the full package.
No defender on any team could catch up to Mbappe. His quickness is on another level. The only way anyone actually got the ball off of him was if he tried to do too much and lost it on his own, or they tackled him.
Once his speed gets going down the middle of the pitch or on the flanks, he’s unstoppable. He proved that all tournament long in Russia.
No limit on his talent
It’s very rare to find a player who can literally do everything. Mbappe is one of those rarities. He can score at a high rate as he’s proved in his career. He can thread the needle and pick out a teammate with a pass. He can take on a whole defense.
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Mbappe has superior athleticism and quickness. At a slender 5’10 and 160 pounds, Mbappe has a lot of time to mature even more.
Right now, he’s fairly strong on the ball but there are times where he does get out-muscled on challenges. Once he gets stronger and fills out more, I guarantee you won’t see that happen as often.
Another impressive asset that Mbappe carries is his lateral quickness. He is so great at quickly changing directions with the ball while moving full speed, which makes it very hard for defenders to keep with him.
You don’t see it very often that a player can move full throttle and dribble the way Mbappe does. His ball control is a beautiful sight to watch.
He also has a very high soccer IQ for such a young age. He is seldom caught offside because he knows that he has the speed to get to a ball even if its 5 or 10 yards ahead of him.
With a lot of players in Europe, we talk about how they need good players to service them up top in order to score goals.
Mbappe has a wealth of quality players on both France and PSG to service him. But just like Messi and Ronaldo, Mbappe can also do it all on his own. He doesn’t require players to feed him in order to create chances.
That’s exactly why he is arguably the best young player in the world right now and in my opinion in the same talent bracket when it comes to skill as a Ronaldo and a Messi.
He hasn’t quite proven himself to the point that Messi and Ronaldo have, but he is still very young and has lots of time to do so.
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There’s no doubt that he will continue to get better. In a few years from now, Kylian Mbappe could be the best player in the world.