Kylian Mbappé

📍Bondy, Seine-Saint-Denis, France

“Kylian Mbappé was born in Paris in December 1998 and grew up in Bondy, a multicultural suburb in Seine-Saint-Denis, north-east of the city. His father, Wilfried, from Cameroon, was a football coach at the local club, AS Bondy, and his mother, Fayza Lamari, of Algerian heritage, was a professional handball player. The family lived in an apartment near the club's ground, and football was the centre of family life; his adopted older brother, Jirès Kembo Ekoko, also became a professional footballer. Kylian spent his childhood at AS Bondy, where his father coached him and drove him hard, teaching him discipline and correcting every mistake. He was a fast, confident, cheerful boy who dreamed big; his bedroom walls were covered with posters of Cristiano Ronaldo, his idol, and he told his teachers he would play for Real Madrid one day. Coaches at Bondy said they had never seen a child like him. He also loved to watch and analyse matches, and he spoke with remarkable maturity from a young age. At about eleven he was selected for the French federation's academy at Clairefontaine, and many of Europe's biggest clubs tried to sign him. In 2013 he chose to join AS Monaco, where he made his debut at sixteen. He won the World Cup with France in 2018, becoming the second teenager after Pelé to score in a World Cup final, and in 2024 he fulfilled his childhood dream by joining Real Madrid. Bondy is enormously proud of him, and his image covers the side of a building in the town.”

Sources: eldiario.ec Wikipedia: Kylian Mbappé