Mbappe and, significantly, his entire family, have always had it in their mind they wanted the striker to reach the top of the global game. And so ‘Project Mbappe’ was born.
“Kylian was just school and football,” says childhood friend Rayan Viyanga in a BBC Sport documentary called Mbappe. “School, football, home.”
He was born on the outskirts of Paris in the suburb of Bondy in 1998, just five months after France won the World Cup for the first time.
The family flat overlooked the AS Bondy football pitches, where his father Wilfried was a player turned coach.
“Kylian was already one step ahead of many other players at AS Bondy,” Viyanga said. “He was advanced for his age group and wanted to play with the best. That was a strict rule of his, to play with the best.”
Laurens added: “As a kid, he learned La Marseillaise at the age of three just to be ready to sing it when that first cap would come.”
Mbappe – whose mother Fayza Lamari is a former professional handball player – pinned up pictures of idol Cristiano Ronaldo and watched old footage of Zidane, another Real Madrid superstar.
A bigger influence closer to home though was Jires Kembo Ekoko, his adopted brother, who was selected for the French Federation’s national academy at Clairefontaine years before Mbappe himself went there. Ekoko went on to play for Rennes in Ligue 1.
Matt Spiro, an author and French football expert, told BBC Sport: “Kylian initially found it a bit difficult at Clairefontaine. He was there for two years and during the first year, he certainly wasn’t the best in his group.
“Mbappe would play out on the wing and would quite frequently be in a sulky mood.
“He had a growth spurt, I think towards the end of his first year in Clairefontaine, and by the second year, he was really starting to look the business.”
But his rapid rise was no surprise, after all even Nike had come calling with free boots, aged just 10.
The forward, tracked by Europe’s biggest clubs from an early age, left his hometown of Paris for the glamour of Monaco at the age of 14.
He had spent time with Chelsea and Real Madrid but the Mbappe family were adamant that their son should stay in France during his teenage years.
Aged 16 years and 347 days, he became the youngest player in Monaco’s history – beating the record set by Henry in 1994 – when he appeared as an 88th-minute substitute against Caen.
Three months later, he became the club’s youngest scorer with his first senior goal against Troyes, beating another record previously set by Henry.
“When he broke through at Monaco, you could tell the talent was so unique,” said Laurens. “We have had great youngsters and talent, but he has something a little bit different.”
