To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories
Find everything you save to your account
Find everything you save to your account
By Maxime Joly
Photography via Malick Bodian
Translated and via John Newton
This story appeared in The Must Read, a newsletter where our editors feature a can’t-miss story in GQ every weekday. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox.
Kylian Mbappé is sore. It’s November, and last night Mbappé’s Paris Saint-Germain fought out a bitter draw with Newcastle in the Champions League group stage at the Parc des Princes. Mbappé scored a penalty in stoppage time, rescuing a point after a frustrating team performance. But if he’s sour about it, Mbappé doesn’t show it, today dressed casually in a plain black T-shirt and a loose-fitting pastel-coloured Jordan tracksuit, Hublot Big Bang One Click peeking out from the sleeve. “Football is a complex thing and you quickly forget the positive experiences as well as the negative ones,” he tells me. “You always have to adapt and reinvent yourself.”
A few post-game aches are standard for Mbappé, a player who, at 25, has already played more than 400 games at the summit of men’s soccer. After breaking through as a teenage sensation at AS Monaco, Mbappé won the World Cup with France at just 19. In 2017, he moved to PSG for €180 million ($215 million), becoming the most expensive teenage player ever and one of the most expensive jewels in an all-star team that for two seasons included Neymar and Lionel Messi. He is already Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top scorer; it seems likely that sooner or later, he’ll achieve the same status with the French national team. (Along the way he became the youngest player ever to reach the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or.)
Dior Men coat, sweater, shirt, trousers and boots.
During that time, Mbappe says, he learned what it takes to keep his body in tip-top condition: more stretching before games, more time in the hands of physiotherapists afterward. “It’s all of these, in large part, invisible paintings, that makes it less difficult. playing a series of matches and recovering from a conceivable injury,” he says, while noting that, unlike some players, he prefers to draw a transparent line between his professional life and his personal life. I have a well-equipped home gym “However, I prefer to spend as much time as I can imagine at school and do whatever I want, even if it means staying up late. Recovery is also mental. The club is a painting and the house is a relaxing area where I am. “I feel more at ease and spend more time with my family, whom I don’t see often enough.
This season marked a new turning point for Mbappé. In July, Messi left PSG for Inter Miami and MLS. A month later, Neymar signed for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal. The two breakdowns marked the dismantling of one of football’s most electric forwards. however, Mbappe says he is unfazed, either by the burden he now carries or by the tumult that reigns in world football. “Many wonderful players who have made football history have left Europe this summer and we are entering a new era,” Mbappe said. “Now it’s part of the cycle of this game and at some point it will be my turn to go. I’m not worried about those changes. I’m just thinking about pursuing my career and going my own way.
Mbappé likes to control every aspect of his image, savvy about how he presents himself to the world. But, throughout our conversation, I can’t help but note that there’s a childlike enthusiasm about him, and his obsession with winning. “The desire to win, to go beyond the limits of what is possible, and to do great things is deeply ingrained in me. I think I owe it to the education and guidance I received both on and off the pitch, which helped me to build myself as a player and as a man,” he says. “We tend to forget it, but we’re eternally children when we play football. The level at which we play the game changes, but the mentality doesn’t. The passion is constant through the years.”
Despite being on Ligue 1’s top scorers list for five consecutive seasons (he scored 29 last year, as PSG held off the wonderful Lens for the title), Mbappe has recently reiterated his goal of becoming a more complete player. The team’s coach explains that this is precisely what Mbappé does. “I’m not surprised because he’s a perfectionist and a competitor. He needs to do more and be better across the board,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. The director, for example, was not one of Mbappé’s many strengths in the first place, but Deschamps points out that he has made remarkable progress in this area, as evidenced by the goal he scored for France against Australia at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. “Although the number of goals he’s already scored is impressive, he can probably still be a little bit more accurate,” Deschamps said.
Mbappe has a more holistic technique in his training. “I think that beyond the technical aspects to improve with, let’s say, the left foot or the head, the most important thing is to broaden the vision of the sport,” he says. With six or seven more coaches, I’ve learned six or seven more tactics to do my job. I’ve evolved in other aspects of my game and I’ve grown steadily. The right mindset demands being able to pay attention and adapt. Mbappe explains that he shaped his playing technique by paying attention to the many wonderful athletes he met on his travels, such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. (And so does French handball star Nikola Karabatic. )He’s starting to take on more wonderful responsibilities, such as recently being named captain of the French national team.
“The big difference compared to before is that at that time my focus was on my functionality and what I can personally contribute to the team,” says Mbappé. “Being captain gives me a new and broader vision. “
Four days from now, Mbappé and his teammates will make the short trip from Paris to Le Havre, in Normandy. Mbappé is looking forward to it; he has just bought himself a new PlayStation Portal for the two-and-a-half-hour bus journey. Is he going to play FC 24? “I’m going to load it up,” he says with a laugh.
For now, he has a few days to prepare for the next match. These moments of respite are becoming rarer, due to the recent increase in the number of matches that the most sensible footballers are forced to play. The new format of next season’s 36-team Champions League and FIFA’s move to a 48-team World Cup in 2026 (up from 32 currently) are expected to rack up matches for elite players who already face more than 30 league, foreign and commercially diverse matches. lucrative pre-season tours overseas. A report published in June 2023 through the players’ union FIFPRO, noted that due to the lack of time between matches, the physical and intellectual fitness of professional players is deteriorating.
Raphael Varane, Mbappe’s former teammate in France, told GQ last year that the adjustments can have serious consequences: “I’m worried that we’ll see much shorter careers. . . Because physically or mentally, what is being asked of them is a little bit beyond the limits,” he said. Other players, such as Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk and Real Madrid’s French midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni, have also expressed concerns; Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke angrily about the threat of injury.
In fact, injuries in the last foreign break in November sidelined several global stars, including Vinicius Jr, Erling Haaland, Gavi and Marcus Rashford. Mbappe fears the adjustments are symptomatic of a developing rift between players, enthusiasts and football’s governing bodies. closer to the NBA model, with 70-game seasons. Personally, I’m not opposed to playing so many games, but we can’t be smart at every moment and give the fans the show they expect,” Mbappe warned. “In the NBA, players don’t play every game and franchises practice load management. But if I said ‘I’m tired, I don’t play on Saturday’, it wouldn’t be good. The fan who will pay for their ticket, and who only sees you once in the season, needs to see a show worthy of the name, and that’s understandable.
“I don’t want to preach, but we do want to think together about how to find the most productive solution imaginable so that players, spectators and football’s governing bodies can adopt it. “
Cardigan, shirt, and pants by Dior Men.
For now, the Paris Saint-Germain striker is thinking first and foremost about getting through this season with his club and the Euros this summer. After a particularly disappointing tournament in 2021, losing to Switzerland in the round of 16, the French team is eager to do better. “We’re one of the most eagerly awaited teams at this tournament and we’re ready and confident. We did very well qualifying and now our objective is to win,” Mbappé adds. “We’ve lost some great champions this year, some extremely important players like Hugo [Lloris] and Raphaël [Varane], but in the end the group hasn’t been affected. That demonstrates real cohesion and an ability to adapt.”
There’s also the factor of the Olympics, which will be held this summer in Mbappe’s hometown of Paris. Mbappe would love to be there and win an Olympic medal, but he knows the national team is not his alone. “It’s a time in my life and in my career where I don’t need to force things anymore. If you ask me, I’d love to pass, but if it’s not possible, I’ll understand,” Mbappe said. For every athlete, the Olympic Games hold a special place. I wanted to move to Tokyo [in 2020] because I need to win everything and write my call-up in the history of the France national team as an important player.
Mbappé also intends to write his own story off the field. He is aware of his enormous influence (apart from perhaps Manchester City’s Haaland and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, there is no player under 26 with a bigger profile) and needs to use it to serve his values, not just the interests of the big brands. He has never hesitated to speak out on social issues, denouncing racism in the stands and on social media and accusing football of exploiting players’ symbolic rights. Mbappé went so far as to boycott twice with Les Bleus sponsors at the beginning of 2022; Being related to a fast food chain or a betting company is incompatible with his beliefs. The confrontation with the French Football Federation culminated in September 2022, when the federation announced that it would review an agreement that, until then, required the participation of national team players. in advertising projects without granting them an exemption.
Like many other athletes he admires, Mbappé also strives to give back. In 2020, I created Inspired through KM, a foundation that supports 98 young people in the Paris region, allowing them to participate in cultural events and recreational activities with the aim of opening me up to new opportunities. “I was raised to pay upfront and percentage of my means. Talent has been the key to getting to where I am today, but I’ve also been helped by the ability to meet the right other person. “Now that I can pass it on, I need to help the next generation as productive as I can. “
Dior Men hoodie and T-shirt.
Mbappé cites the example of basketball star LeBron James, whom he met in the United States during a crusade with Nike a few years ago. “He is much further along in his career than me and the assignments outside of the sport have cemented his position as a legendary video game player. Being able to ask inspirational personalities like him for recommendations is an opportunity to adjust my homework and create my own technique that is as most effective imaginable to help today’s youth,” he explains.
His own path could fork soon, as Mbappé’s contract with PSG ends in June. After seven seasons of titles and records, as well as tensions and frustrations, the striker will have a choice to make: whether to stick around, in hopes of leading PSG to its first Champions League win, or to chart his own course elsewhere. (He has, for several years, been linked with Real Madrid; last summer, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal reportedly offered him one of the most lucrative athletic contracts in history. Mbappé declined.)
If all this, in addition to eroding the hopes and dreams of French football, becomes a burden, that is precisely the problem. “I have shown that stress does not affect me negatively, I would even say that I want it. Do my best,” he says. “The tension allows me to maintain the point of excellence necessary to play at the highest point. “
Suitcase by Rimowa.
Styled by Stella Greenspan Hair by Brice Tchaga Makeup by Mélissa Gateau Scenography by Félix Gesnouin Produced by AP Studio, Paris
By Matthieu Roberson
By Tom Ward
By Alex Kirshner
By Alex Nino Gheciu
Wayfair discount code to get 15% off your entire purchase
Save 25% with Michaels Coupon
Enjoy 30% off with ASOS promo code
Get $50 Off Watches with eBay Promo Code
Get Peacock Premium for just $1. 99/month from $5. 99
Daily Deals 2024: Up to 45% Off Samsung
More GQ
Connect