Rapper Rim’K salutes the player’s ability to control both his game and his image. The writer Mathieu Larnaudie, he does not see in attacking him an inventor of genius, rather a relentless finisher.
Mathieu Larnaudie: “M’bappé is more clinical than romantic”
“For a writer, Kylian Mbappé, apart from the admiration that his performances inevitably arouse, is more revealing as a symptom of the era than as a singular character. It seems more clinical than romantic, more statistical than literary. He seems to have perfectly absorbed all the rules of the most pragmatic conception of the game, and of its mediatization. The asperities of the good man are due more to his frenzied individualism than to the fantasies of his character. The dramaturgy around the character boils down to his records of precocity. We are far from George Best or Maradona. Just look at the advertising esotericism of his goal celebrations, everything is calculated to give a potential viral cliché. On the pitch, he exudes an incredible serenity and confidence. There is a prodigious fluidity in his running and in his gestures, a feline and slender side that gives real grace to his attitudes. Everything he does, he does well, with natural elegance.
“But he is not an inventor. He grew up when two of the greatest players of all time were at their peak (Ronaldo and Messi). Having seen the Argentinian play with Barca almost every week for fifteen years, I can tell you that the fear was often palpable in his opponents as soon as he took the ball in certain areas. However, we cannot say that Kylian Mbappé is unpredictable. Almost always, when he takes the ball, we see what he is going to do. But he does it with such speed and precision that the defender is taken all the same. It is perhaps this, deep down, that scares the most: knowing where the danger comes from and not being able to counter it. He will need a rival of the same caliber to perfect his legend. The rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo made them better, it sublimated them, like that between Federer and Nadal. Who ? The Norwegian Haaland? The feline against Golgoth? Will they share the Golden Balls for the next twelve years as their predecessors did?
Rim’K: “He is the one who has the power over his career”
“The first word that comes to mind? Gifted. It’s a bit easy to say that but I can’t find another word to define it. Last night I looked at his stats and frankly it’s nonsense. He does better than the Brazilian Pelé when we thought his records were unbeatable. In fact, Kylian Mbappé is a player who looks like back in the day. It’s not like Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff or Zinedine Zidane who had a more romantic side. It was nice gestures and dribbling. He resembles the modern player: technique, intensity and power. But what he’s doing is unique right now because he ticks all the boxes. He smashes everything. He is already at the level of the big boys, but what is scary – in a good way – is that he still has a lot of room for improvement. No one can say today where Kylian Mbappé will stop.
“His other strength is to be good everywhere. He managed to surround himself with his family and he manages his communication very well. It’s a great achievement because it’s not easy to resist temptations and pitfalls in the age of social networks. Often, we lock people in boxes, it does not work with him. He comes from the suburbs but he speaks to everyone, he does not fall into clichés because he is intelligent and has his parents behind him. Many players who were on the road to glory fell because of this pressure. And he is the opposite, he manages his schedule and his rhythm. He is the one who has the power over his career. Does it still belong to France? We will say that we are on borrowed time because he is still playing at Paris Saint-Germain, but he is taking a path that will go beyond all borders. Soon it will belong to everyone.”