KYLIAN MBAPPÉ: The Definitive Biography By Julien Laurens (Pegasus Books)

A few years ago I was coaching a boys U-11 team when a gifted attacking player showed up for a tryout. Flattered that he chose our club, we signed him up with too much haste before finding out why he’d failed to succeed at a higher level. Although he could dribble with ease around most opponents, he didn’t take kindly to coaches giving him advice or referees awarding decisions that weren’t in his favor. All attempts to modify, correct or reform his belligerent attitude failed. After a few stressful months, we sent him on his way, relieved to have a harmonious team once more.

Kylian Mbappé, a World Cup winner at 19, and scorer of a hat trick in a World Cup final two days before his 24th birthday, enjoyed much better guidance. He was surrounded by a close-knit and caring family and quality coaches who mostly knew what was best for him. Plus, teammates who wouldn’t tolerate him behaving like a diva.

When Mbappé moves from home in his early teen years from hometown club Bondy, in the Parisian suburbs, to the French academy of excellence at Clarefontaine, he’s not just homesick but also no longer the best player. He was, according to his biographer Julien Laurens, “sulking a lot of the time… when he didn’t get a free kick, when he didn’t get a throw-in, when he didn’t win a game, whenever anything didn’t go his way during a match or training, he would sulk about it. So much so that his teammates gave him a special nickname: “Mbébé!” He takes the insult on board and changes. A couple of years later, playing at Monaco in the U-17s, he doesn’t get on well with a coach who wants him to track back and defend more, but a strong work rate later becomes a crucial asset to his game.

With the help of inside access to Mbappé’s formidable parents, Wilfrid and Fayza, Laurens pinpoints the moments that were key to the forward’s development, in a story peppered with engaging anecdotes about his school days and his voracious ambition from the age of three onwards. You will learn that when he received a Real Madrid shirt at the age of 6, he refused to don it after spotting it was a fake. That he studied with diligence old soccer highlights and built up an obsessive knowledge of players and stats. That he was often restless at school but made it through the necessary exams thanks to an extraordinary memory. That the banlieue of Bondy gave Mbappé “the perfect street education, making him the man he is today: strong-minded, quick-witted, filled with character, feisty and ambitious, but also reflective and compassionate, with a great sense of community.” (There are no negatives in a family-approved biography.)