sport news Kylian Mbappe may fire France to World Cup glory but some in Paris feel he ... trends now
The train doors open and a game of cat and mouse begins in Bondy. Between ticketless teenagers determined to hop the barriers and a horde of security staff daring them to try. The kids triumph this time, outwitting and eventually outrunning the chasing pack.
On Saturday night, 3,000 miles away, another boy from this corner of Paris will resume his own version of Catch Me If You Can.
Kyle Walker is the latest defender tasked with shackling Kylian Mbappe, keeping pace with this bolt of blue when England meet France in the World Cup quarter finals.
'I wish him good luck,' laughs Rachid Mekchiche, a coach at AS Bondy, where Mbappe first stretched his legs en route to becoming the world's most dangerous player.
Even for the banlieues, the maze of high-rise housing and hopelessness, a hotbed of talent surrounding Paris, AS Bondy have made a habit of carving gems from concrete.
Kylian Mbappe, France's star player, broke through as a boy (above) in Parisian suburb Bondy
Now the Paris Saint-Germain star is set to face England in Saturday's World Cup quarter-final
Arsenal's William Saliba (left) was also reared at Bondy, coached by Mbappe's dad Wilfried
William Saliba, the Arsenal defender alongside Mbappe in Didier Deschamps' squad, was also reared here. Coached by Mbappe's dad, Wilfried, no less.
And this weekend, the next generation will gather at L'Atelier, a nearby restaurant that has become AS Bondy's base for France's title defence.
On Tuesday afternoon the kitchen and curtains were closed, but Mekchiche was among those inside, watching Morocco triumph over Spain.Last week, France's sports minister – Amelie Oudea-Castera – was here, too, joining the youngsters to see Mbappe's double against Poland while another coach prepared chocolate waffles with whipped cream. Once the fuel of their favourite son.
Oudea-Castera is among several politicians who have inserted themselves into the winger's story over the past four years, since a teenage Mbappe accelerated his rise towards a position of financial and political and cultural significance that few footballers have ever held.
'Of course we are proud,' Mekchiche says. 'For the club, for the town, for all the young people who train here. For the volunteers, the coaches, the parents.'
Mbappe has helped alter the tapestry of Bondy, where 'lots of families are in real difficulty'.
A young Mbappe pictured (far right, bottom row) at the AS Bondy side which has produced fellow France senior internationals like winger Jonathan Ikone and forward Randal Kolo Muani
Last week, youngsters in the Bondy Academie watched Mbappe's double against Poland in Les Bleus' last-16 tie at L'Atelier Bondy restaurant in the north-eastern suburb of the capital city
France's sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera has inserted herself into the winger's story
No wonder a young boy, wandering along the pavement, shouts his name as he rolls a football between his feet.
No wonder that around here, around this time – as one local report put it – 'Father Christmas has competition'.
Mbappe, 23, has been branded 'the atomic bomb' to lead France to a second successive World Cup.
Or, as one boy confessed during a kickabout in Bondy: 'Without him, there would be no team.'
Hence why Oudea-Castera joined in chants of 'Kylian, Kylian' and pulled on the green and white of AS Bondy.
But perhaps a clearer illustration of Mbappe's place within France stands a few minutes away: a giant mural painted after he became the first teenager since Pele to score in the World Cup final.
Back in 2018, when still only 19, his face was plastered over Paris. Less so now.
On Wednesday, the artwork draws little attention from cars or passers-by.
Instead, crowds gathered on a nearby bridge as emergency services tended to a body. Fished out of the river, apparently.
The mural, much like Mbappe, is simply part of the furniture now. But in one corner, some new words have appeared: a death threat. Grim but symbolic nevertheless of how Mbappe's image has been tarnished in recent years.
To some, this boy wonder who donated his World Cup earnings to charity, who played with a fearlessness of youth and spoke with charm in different tongues, now embodies football's grubbier side. Greed, petulance, excess.
