Kylian Mbappé made French soccer history in France’s opening 2026 World Cup game, his two goals against Senegal making him the country’s all-time top goalscorer. The Real Madrid superstar is, of course, a household name, but have you been saying it correctly all these years?

The forward burst onto the scene with Monaco in the 2015/16 season and scored six goals in nine games as the principality club reached the semifinals of the Champions League the following season, in which they also lifted the Ligue 1 trophy. Mbappé then won six league titles and and six domestic cups after a 2017 move to PSG, where he scored 256 goals in 308 games in all competitions.

His 58 goals in 99 matches for France include a hat-trick in the 2022 World Cup final against Argentina, which led to him winning the Golden Boot at the tournament. Yet despite all his achievements for more than a decade, many of us have still been pronouncing his name wrong.

How to say ‘Mbappé’: Real Madrid attacker explains

In an interview on French television earlier this year, Mbappé was asked whether the pronunciation of his surname begins with ‘Em-,’ which is essentially how we say the letter M. “No, I’d have a lot of work to do if I had to correct everyone,” the Madrid star responded.

He then explained the M in his name is a softer ‘mm’ sound, a shorter version of the noise many people make after eating something tasty (if that description still has you tongue-tied, watch the video in the X link above, understanding French is optional).

It’s also an error to stress the middle syllable of Mbappé (i.e. ‘ba-’), which many native English speakers do. The difference between stressed syllables and unstressed syllables is much more subtle in French compared to English, with views that there is a slight stress on the final syllable and that all syllables take the same length of time to say both existing.

With Mbappé seemingly in top form in the second half of France’s win over Senegal and Didier Deschamps’ side expected to go deep in the tournament, his name is likely to be heard plenty. But will it be pronounced correctly?

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