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Kylian Mbappé in 2020: “Me and my friends, we did not hope to become footballers. We did not expect. We did not plan. We dreamed. There is a difference. Some children have posters of superheroes on their bedroom walls. We covered ours with footballers. I had so many posters of Zidane and Cristiano. (To be fair, when I got older, I also had some posters of Neymar, which he finds very funny, but that’s another story!) Sometimes people ask me why there is so much talent coming from our neighborhoods. Like maybe there is something in the water, or we are training in a different way, like Barcelona or something. But no, if you came to AS Bondy, I’m afraid you would just see a humble family club. Some apartment buildings and some artificial grass. But I think that football is just different for us. It is essential. It is every day. It is like bread and water. I remember we had this tournament at our school — all the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th graders — and it was like our World Cup. We were playing for this €2 plastic trophy, but we treated it like it was life or death. In the 93, your honor is always at stake. And it’s funny, because the rule was that every team had to be mixed. Girls and boys. Well, unfortunately not all the girls wanted to play in the tournament, so we had to really negotiate. I remember telling my friend that if she gave everything on the pitch and we won the Cup, I would buy her a new coloring book. I was begging her. Maybe you think I’m exaggerating, but it really meant everything to us. As we say, ‘This is the Neuf Trois. We can’t lose.’ We played for this €2 trophy like it was the Jules Rimet Trophy. That’s just how it was. I’m sure it was quite difficult for my teachers. To them, I really apologize. I remember coming home from school one day with nine different warnings from the principal. ‘Kylian did not do his homework.’ ‘Kylian forgot his school supplies.’ ‘Kylian was talking about football during mathematics.’ My head was in the clouds.” playerstribu.ne/Mbappe @KMbappe | @equipedefrance