Playing against Bondy’s top was a cruel and wrong feat given the number of professional footballers among his pupils, including Arsenal defender William Saliba, is in double figures.
The Mbappé mission did not prohibit there.
When a young Mbappé pinned images of Ronaldo and saw deteriorated photographs of Zinedine Zidane, another Real Madrid star, there was a third model a little closer to home: Jires Kembo Ekoko, his fan brother.
Ekoko was taken in by Mbappé’s parents when he was nine years old and was selected for the French Federation’s national academy in Clairefontaine before playing professionally with Rennes in Ligue 1.
Ekoko was used for more than a decade than Mbappé, but he had a great impact.
In the week of six, Mbappé had performed the French national anthem, explaining to his teacher that “one day I will play in the World Cup with France.”
It wasn’t just Wilfried and Fayza who believed Mbappé was destined for great things.
Nike came to be called with detached footwear when he was only 10 years old. One minute, more than six years later, he made his first-team debut for Monaco. But the journey between these two things was not easy.
Allan Momege was Mbappé’s teammate at Clairefontaine.
“When I met him, he wasn’t the player that impressed me the most,” Momege says of Mbappé in the BBC Game documentary.
“For me he didn’t stand out as a player during the trials. The first time I saw him play, I didn’t think, ‘Wow!’
“There have been regional decisions and Kylian was not among the most productive workforce.”
Matt Spiro, French soccer expert and author, echoes Momege.
“At first, Kylian found things in Clairefontaine to be a bit complicated,” he says. “He was there for two years and during the first generation, he was definitely not the best on his team. I think even Kylian would admit that.
“Mbappé played on the wing and was often in a bad mood. He had a growth spurt, I think towards the end of his first year at Clairefontaine, and in the second year, he was really starting to look good.
“The future society was thinking that we have been given a very particular skill in our hands.”
That talent was acquired by Monaco scouts in July 2013, when he was 14 years old.
Going from the Parisian suburbs to the rich, sunny Côte d’Azur at such a young age could have made others withdraw into themselves.
Not Bondy’s boy now.
