Mbappé shines against England
The clamor surrounding Kylian Mbappé reminded me of a line from the great Vujadin Boskov. In his broken Spanish he claimed: “A great player shines early”. Last season the forward hardly played but the 2016/17 campaign has seen the striker blossom into the acclaimed talent we are are now well aware of. He finished the season playing 44 games bagging 26 goals in the process, six of those coming in the Champions League. His Mónaco side reached the semi-final of the competition losing to Juventus with Mbappe scoring in Turín. He's also recently broken into the French national team and was excellent in Tuesday's friendly game against England in Paris. He's still only 18 years old !
Stade de France performance
The only thing missing from his performance on Tuesday was a goal. He hit the crossbar with an effort and provided the assist for Dembelé and brought out the best in Heaton and Butland. He linked up well with Giroud in the first half and performed even better in the second 45 when the sending off of Varane left him as a lone striker and he was a menace to the England defence as "Le Parisien" claimed. He made the front cover of the following day's "L’Équipe" along side Dembelé with the accompanying headline of "A breath of fresh air". Florentino is anxious to secure the next player to challenge Messi and Cristiano in their Ballon d'Or domination and this was his motivation in going after Neymar and ultimately signing Bale (although the Welshman is some way off the pace). His sights are now firmly fixed on Kylian Mbappé.
Bernabéu bound ?
The player is now top of many club's wishlist and will certainly not come cheaply. The encouraging signs for Real Madrid are the positive comments Mpabbe makes about Zidane. AS journalist and No. 1 Madrid fan Tomas Roncero even claims that his latest hair colour is a nod towards a move to the Bernabeu. He was even encouraging me to Photoshop a picture of the player wearing the new Real Madrid kit but i felt that would be a little excessive. I am, however convinced that it is an image we will see at some point. Maybe in a year's time after a loan spell at Monaco upon signing for Madrid..possibly. I'm convinced he'd be an excellent acquisition and have no doubt that he's a player with a massive future.