The World Cup-winning PSG youngster received the wisdom of football from the former France legend, Thierry Henry.
Paris Saint-Germain young talent Kylian Mbappe received valuable advice from the France legend, Thierry Henry. The former Arsenal striker urged him to never “lose the little kid inside of you”.
Evidently so, Mbappe is amongst the top prospects of the football industry in just four years of his senior career.
Subsequently, in the season 2016-17, the France international aided Monaco to win the Ligue 1 trophy. Not only that, but he also helped his side reach the Champions League semi-finals before his transfer to PSG on a loan.
Mbappe did nothing less in his new club at Parc des Princes and provided immense support to help win the domestic title. Consequently, PSG signed a permanent deal with the 21-year-old in the summer of 2018 for €133 million.
This, however, did not stop Mbappe as he picked up the honorary World Cup winners’ medal at a young age. France beat Croatia 4-2 in Russia following the youngster’s goal on the big stage.
Nevertheless, Mbappe has now netted 96 goals in 130 appearances for PSG overall. On the other hand, he has 16 goals in 38 outings for his national team.
Words of wisdom.
Former Arsenal and France attacker Henry achieved similar heights during his spell for club and country. Although, now he shared his experience with Mbappe regarding the pressure dealt during a football career.
“Don’t ever lose the little kid inside of you. Sometimes I did, I won’t lie,” the current Montreal Impact boss told the PSG talisman at a promotional event for EA Sports alongside heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua.
“Sometimes with the pressure, after 10, 11, 12 years you kind of forget about the enjoyable part of the game. Make sure you listen to that kid because you know what, he brought you there.”
Mbappe and Henry received a rather interesting question as to who will win a race between the two of them. The PSG forward insisted that he would beat the ex-Barcelona star at his peak in the career.
However, Henry came up with a brilliant answer avoiding going to any conclusion.
“What?! No, no you know what? Listen, we can never know. You need to understand something; it’s not about speed, it’s about how fast you can be with the ball,” Henry said.
“This is something that people do not understand. This kid right now, Kylian, put speed on the side, yeah he has speed – but [it’s different] to be able to shift the ball, stop it, go with power. To be able to block someone at the same time, shift it on your right, block here, shift it on your left and still have your head up and see what’s happening.”
The journey is not over yet.
Furthermore, Mbappe mentioned that he still has a long journey to embark on before reaching the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“When you come one-on-one [with the goalkeeper] you wanna kill him, of course. That’s from me, that’s not something I work on, that comes from me since I was a young kid. I want to kill him, one against the one you think you will stop my shot? No. It’s this spirit for me,” he said.
“Sometimes I come to a one on one and I approach it too easy, too sure of myself, too much confidence. I’m not focused on what I want to do, I’m too confident as I’m thinking ‘I can score easily’, but that’s not the good way.
“I know what I have to do, today I see the best players in the world like Messi and Ronaldo and I’m really happy with the start of my career but I have more steps to reach their level and I know what I have to do to be there, I have to improve every day.”
In addition, Mbappe expressed his disappointment following the exit from the 2019-20 Champions League final vs Bayern Munich.
“We lost the Champions League Final and people have to understand this; we train all year to be ready for this moment and when you lose, you can’t be happy,” he added. “You can’t be happy because you remember all the sacrifices that you made to arrive there.”
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