France bets on Kylian Mbappé, the boy from the suburbs | Soccer

B Under gray buildings in the poor suburb of Bondy, north-east of Paris, there was a familiar sound of the summer afternoons: the thud of a balloon Football against concrete in the crashed courts. ] But the French flags hung on the windows of cars, the banner supporting the French football team at the corner of a street, and the children proudly wearing French football jerseys showed a new sense of urgency. excitation. "Kylian Mbappé to the presidency", shouted a 10-year-old balloon

It's here in Bondy that Mbappé, French hero of the 19-year-old World Cup, was born, raised and played his first

As France prepares to face Croatia on Sunday in the final, the heroic cult of Mbappé drew attention to the poor suburbs of Paris . Several stars grew up around the capital, including Golo Kanté and Paul Pogba. The pride spree is a welcome change for ethnically diverse regions that, more than a decade after the 2005 riots, are still so stigmatized and discriminated against that one politician warned this year against "a new apartheid".

traditionally placed extraordinary pressure on the national football team to be a standard-bearer of the country's identity and a magical solution to the ills of society. It is now considered a political folly to expect the victorious 1998 Zinedine Zidane World Cup team – mythologically known as "Black-White-Beur" – to have solved the deeply rooted identity problems of France 20 years ago. by winning a tournament.

Four years after the "rainbow" team of 1998 was brandished as a balm for race relations, the far right Jean-Marie Le Pen – who complained of too much blacks in the French football team – made the final round of the 2002 presidential election. In the presidential election of last year, his daughter, Marine Le Pen, won more than 10 million votes, the best result ever obtained by the National Front, now National Rally.

But the fact that Mbappé was hailed The national hero of diversity is seen as a reflection of a changing France and a growing talent, a movement aimed at bridging the gap between the capital and its hinterland. Sylvine Thomassin, the Mayor of Bondy, hailed the fact that the tournament brought "a good image of the suburb in general."

In a youth club in Bondy, teenagers prepared red, white and blue banners and storage flags for the screening of the final. "The World Cup brought such a positive feeling here, it's magical," said Kamelia, 15, who played women's football at AS Bondy, the small local club where Mbappé coached when he was a child. "There is a real sense of solidarity – whole families will come together to watch the game."

Ayoub, 16, another young local player, remembers Mbappé when he was a child. "He was always there to do extra exercises, he is our mascot, proof that if you work hard enough, anything is possible."

In the center of town, a large banner hung from the roof of the town hall saying: "Thank you Kylian."

There has been such an increase In the last two decades, French football players from the Paris suburbs suburbs are now considered to be the largest pool of young footballers in the world, in front of São Paulo in Brazil. There are several reasons: excellent local clubs, a high concentration of young people and the large number of talent recruiters flocking here. It is even said that the style of some players reflects a childhood street football where many learn to play fast in small spaces.

Bondy, where Mbappé grew up, has approximately 50,000 inhabitants and stretches across a highway connecting Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport. It is part of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis which, with 1.6 million people, is the poorest region of France, with the youngest population. It is in Seine-Saint-Denis that three weeks of riots across French cities began in 2005, after two teenagers, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, returning from football, were electrocuted while They were hiding in an electricity substation after

Unemployment and poverty in areas north of Paris are even higher than elsewhere in France, and many young people remain marginalized and unemployed because their address, the color of their skin or the immigrant roots of their parents. President Emmanuel Macron described discrimination and inequality here as a kind of "house arrest".

But Mbappé and his family tell another story of the suburbs – young talents, ambition and family support – that France has been eager to embrace this summer. If the young star started singing the national anthem and dreaming of playing for France before the age of five, a lot of things are due to her parents. His father Wilfried, who has Cameroonian roots, was a local football player and respected coach in Bondy. His mother, Fayza, of Algerian descent, was a professional handball player. They are still advising their son, who has been commended for giving his World Cup match honorarium to charity and he said it would be lost without them.

"Wilfried Mbappé was a coach and youth worker while I was growing up, he gave everything to the community, if it was not for him, I would not be where I am today. "Hui," said Hakim Ziane, teacher and youth leader. "It is wonderful that the suburb is celebrated today rather than stigmatized. There are no barriers in this city. There is a lot of talent and we have to do what we can to make sure that social mobility works. "

Among the 23 players of the young French team, more than half are of African descent or Arab team.France's place in the World Cup final is already hailed as a kind of unification balm Two sociologists have called the finale "collective therapy" after years of terrorist attacks that fractured a French society already torn apart.

But in a French republic supposed to be in color blind theory, race issues and identity In 1965, the mutiny of the team at the World Cup in South Africa was blamed by black or Muslim players, including Frenchman converted to Islam, Franck Ribery. The speculation was that the team had fragmented on a lack of "national identity", which angered supporters in the suburbs .In 2011, French football was in crisis after officials attempted of li mimic black and arab players at youth training programs to make the team whiter. The novelist Olivier Guez, who flew with Macron to attend the semifinal in Russia, warned last week that "we should not impose too much symbolism on the team on" the nation ".

"Everyone is so proud and happy, it's amazing," said Shaïma Outouia, 21, a youth worker and sports coach who knew Mbappé. "It's great to show Bondy in a positive light, as a place that does everything to help its young and old." On TV, Kylian is rightly right, but I know him as someone who Fun, generous, that always makes people laugh. "