Kylian Mbappe is walking a well-trodden path but the hardest part is yet to come

A bright spark with an even brighter future, but the Frenchman must ensure that once he leaves for greener pastures that his impact as a player matches his jaw-dropping price-tag

Kylian Mbappe finds himself in a similar position to the original Ronaldo and Michael Owen during their youth days (Getty)

It was one of those classic moments that cause people to shut up and stand back in awe. The year was 1994 and PSV Eindhoven’s players had heard that “a good young striker would be coming from Brazil, but that he was young and would need time to adapt, to the speed, especially to the weather”. The latter seemed particularly clear when, on a day of clear blue skies and 16 or 17 degrees, this “good young striker” turned up to training wrapped up in two jackets.

Then, a ball was played to a 17-year-old Ronaldo, and it didn’t matter what he was wearing. All that mattered was that ability, that exhilarating potency, that potential.

“We thought ‘who’s that guy’,” Erik Meijer, a teammate to Ronaldo at the time, tells The Independent. “Because of the two jackets, we thought he was fat. He wasn't. I was smiling a little but when I saw what he could do with the ball that smile went away. I was a striker so I knew I would be sitting on the bench. Ronaldo will play. He was immediately playing like a 25-year-old.”

And he was immediately ripping through entire defences, like they were not really a concern – just as Kylian Mbappe is doing now.

While it is obviously far too early to say that Mbappe will be as good as the original Ronaldo, the fact is that both Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are prepared to pay up to £200m for him, and that every other major club in Europe wants him. That is some going for someone whose senior career only started properly a few months ago, but it reflects a very rare case in football: those few players who immediately become among the best in the world as mere teenagers, whose impact is that pronounced, and that indisputable.

It’s not quite the situation with players like Leo Messi or Diego Maradona, who were always talked about as youngsters and gradually became the greatest in the world. It is more those bright sparks that suddenly blazed, whose contribution to a campaign or competition was so eye-opening that it arrested the entire world - like Pele in 1958, Ronaldo in the mid-90s, Michael Owen in 1998 and Mbappe now.

It is probably no coincidence, either, that those explosions were based on exhilarating speed, on a fearsome athleticism that seemed almost unplayable. That they came from someone so young only seemed all the more exciting, because of how their very youth fired the imagination of what was next going to be possible from them, of how they might further develop.


 Mbappe has caught the attention of the sporting world with his youth and talent 
 (AFP/Getty Images)

“It was the speed of the first three, four steps that was unbelievable,” Meijer says of Ronaldo. “In combination with his control of the ball, and especially how he found the shortest way to goal. Those three things in combination were… yeah, phenomenal.”

What has so far stood out with Mbappe has been a similar electricity, as it did for Owen, who Meijer also played with when at Liverpool. As filled with caveats as Owen’s career became, it’s too easy to forget just how frighteningly good he felt when scoring against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup, just how feared he was, and why he was voted Ballon D’Or winner three years later.

The wonder is what it must feel like to be that revelation; what must be going through Mbappe’s mind as he goes through another Champions League backline?

“Well, I’ve obviously not known any differently to that,” Michael Owen tells The Independent. “It’s only when you grow older you realise how you thought about the game, how other people think, being around other people. My body was probably quite immature but my football mind was like a 30-year-old when I was 17, and I instantly got on with all the older players.

“The other thing is you have a good first experience, and then right the way through. I was in England under-15s in my first year, and broke all the records in terms of goals, then I’m playing in the Youth Cup, three years above my age group, and then I go and score a hat-trick. Then the next challenge is England under-21s at 17 and I score on my debut so every time you think ‘you can do it’. It’s just a question of ‘give me the next challenge’… I went into big games knowing I was going to score.”

Michael Owen caused quite the storm upon his arrival to the international scene (Getty)

Owen was on the other side of it in Euro 2004, and spotted the same quality in Wayne Rooney, who would have much the same impact.

“Yeah, he was so cocky, so… and not outwardly, you didn’t think ‘what a horrible, cocky brat’. You thought, ‘my God, he has got so much self-belief, confidence, compared to anyone, any game’. In the first squad, he probably looked at me and thought ‘hey, I’m having your place’ and I was probably looking at him thinking ‘you picked on the wrong guy’, but it’s all mentality.”

It was that on-pitch maturity that Meijer also noted in Ronaldo, that showed it wasn’t just about sheer quality combined with power.

“I think those players have a certain radar, even at that age,” Meijer says. “They know exactly how big the pitch is, how many players are in the box, that extra instinct.

Ronaldo, the original, had an aura of swagger and confidence about him from the very beginning (Getty)

“Their way of playing football, they were not 17 or 18. In their behaviour or way of being, they looked for the young ones on their team. But they are not of the same football level, so after a while those extraordinary players start talking about technical and tactical things with older players, same as when you are a young kid that's very smart, you go up two or three classes… you have to go up the levels quicker.

"You need to always have the best players around you. If you reach a certain level, you have to go the next level. Otherwise you get lazy. I think that’s the biggest danger.”

And that’s the biggest question with Mbappe now, as so many big clubs vie for his signature. Is the time actually right for him to move? Would he better served staying at the relatively low-pressure environment of Monaco?

Owen thinks he should go to Real Madrid.


 Will Mbappe continue to shine or burn out under pressure the expectation? 
 (Getty)

“I think so. And when people say, oh if you go to a club too young or any of that, if you’re 20 or whatever, it doesn’t matter ... In my opinion, you’re either mentally on it or you’re not.

“It’s only soft players. People say well you moved too early, it’s not, you were probably always going to fail.”

Meijer feels it isn’t quite that simple, though, because of one major extra complication: the price.

“I had a feeling at the time at Eindhoven, Ronaldo was playing for joy, he loved it, he was always smiling, learning our Dutch language, so easy-going, so I don’t think there was any pressure when he was in Holland, and I had the same feeling with Michael Owen - but as soon as you make a step, then the pressure comes, there’s a transfer fee, people expect more of you.

“Mbappe is playing now naturally. He is playing like he did as a kid, and like the last 10 years. He liked it, he just has joy and fun and when he makes a mistake it’s not a problem. When they put €180m on your neck, well there will be a little bit of pressure. Players who can get over that, they are world class. That’s what Ronaldo showed us. He could go further.”

So can Mbappe. He will likely go somewhere this summer, but just needs to make sure the impact stays as jaw-dropping as the price.