As Gary Lineker said ahead of the World Cup final, Kylian Mbappe has the potential to emulate Cristiano Ronaldo as football’s next big star. Scoring two goals, the 19-year-old has helped France through the showpiece getting the chance to play against Croatia on Sunday which is already today.
Lineker believes that the young Frenchman from Bondy has everything that it takes to become the next superstar. Indeed Lineker won the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup.
Lineker clearly said: “His performance in the semi-final of the World Cup, for a player so young, was just incredible. His speed, his technique, his charm and his ability to play the right ball at the right time are incredible. He’s got incredible maturity and is one of the best young players I’ve ever seen. He’s got everything to become the next Cristiano Ronaldo. Look, in fact, he reminds me of the Brazilian Ronaldo. He’s got the same power, the same explosivity, same speed, same brilliant, and everything’s done at an incredible tempo that gives the impression that it is all so easy. He seems unaffected by pressure.”
When asked to compare Mbappe with Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney, who both exploded onto the international scene with England at World Cups, the former Barcelona striker said: “Both were able to do incredible things, in particular, Michael Owen in the quarter-final of the 1998 World Cup against Argentina [when he scored a memorable solo goal], but they were human.”
Finding the net twice against Argentina in the last 16, but otherwise, Mbappe hasn’t scored at the competition. In only 21 appearances he already has seven international strikes to his credit, having made his debut against in a victory over Luxembourg in 2017.
Completing a move from Monaco to Paris-Saint-Germain for 160 million Euros the young attacker is the world’s second most expensive player which has made permanent this summer after a campaign that was technically spent on loan.
The World Cup final could represent his first truly stellar silverware having captured the domestic treble in France.