2023-09-02 00:36:28
Randal Kolo Muani during a Bundesliga match between Mainz and Frankfurt, Germany, August 27, 2023. DANIEL ROLAND / AFP
Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and Randal Kolo Muani. During the last match of the France team (1-0 victory against Greece), on June 19, these three formed – briefly, according to the changes of coach Didier Deschamps – the attack line of the Blues. Three world-class players now united under the colors of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
This summer, the club champion of France of the upheaval separated from its stars Neymar and Lionel Messi. In the radius of arrivals therefore appear Ousmane Dembélé, 26, landed from FC Barcelona against 50 million euros, and Randal Kolo Muani, 24, recruited, for a five-year contract, against an even more expensive amount – the transfer would be 75 million euros plus 15 million euros in bonuses, according to The team – at Eintracht Frankfurt, after a last eventful day of the transfer window. His departure from the German club remained uncertain until the start of the evening and even seemed very compromised after 6 p.m., when the transfer window officially closed across the Rhine.
For the versatile striker, it’s a return to basics. He hails from the suburbs of Paris, one of the biggest pools of talent on planet football. From Nantes to Frankfurt, via the World Cup in Qatar, the Francilien has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years. But the takeoff was late.
Summer 2016. Upgraded to the French team, Kylian Mbappé won the European Under-19 Championship at the age of 17. At the same age and the same period, Randal Kolo Muani wonders if he will one day sign a professional contract. Born in Paris, the first grew up in Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis). Born in Bondy, the second lived all his youth in another town in the department, in Villepinte. One has drawn a straight line towards the highest level since his pre-training years at Clairefontaine (Yvelines), the other has taken tortuous paths, passing under the radar of professional clubs.
Read the portrait: Article reserved for our subscribers Ousmane Dembélé, king of the feint, half-time prodigy and new PSG player
A “respectful kid” and “smiling”
“It’s the story of a kid who understood late that professional football is a job”recounts Matthieu Bideau, head of recruitment at the FC Nantes training center, where Randal Kolo Muani first signed an aspiring contract in January 2016, before later joining the pro group and making his hole in Ligue 1 during of the 2020-2021 season.
Benjamin of a family of five children, he was raised in a family of Congolese origin, from the middle class. At Les Mousseaux, aka Les Arcades, he lived in one of those pavilions with a cream facade blackened by pollution. A district of Villepinte separated from the Georges-Pollet stadium – where he donned his first yellow and blue jerseys – by the six lanes of the A104 motorway.
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