Bondy's boy who never forgot his place of birth

"I can be someone, I can be someone," say the children who play football in Bondy, the birthplace of Kylian Mbappe.

The 19-year-old, who was not Even born when France won his first World Cup, he traveled to Russia in 2018 with the most promising teenager label in the world.

He came back with the World Cup trophy and a heir reputation from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The best player in the world

His return to France on Monday also highlighted Bondy, just over 10 kilometers from the Stade de France in Paris, where the French national team plays its home games.

Bondy is a place where Mbappe has

He donates his World Cup winnings – up to $ 500,000 – to Premiers de Cord-e, a charity that offers sports opportunities to children hospitalized or disabled, who is based at the Charity Stadium confirmed to CNN that they will receive Mbappe's earnings in September.

"Kids have stars in their eyes, when they see Kylian," said Ninon Bardel, spokesman for the prime ministers, adding that Mbappe has been working with them for about a year.

"Sometimes they have some difficulty realizing that it's real, it's fun, but Kylian has so much ease with them that everything becomes normal and simple, he tells himself that the stars are children of cord-e "is an expression of the French mountain", continues Bardel. "The" first of cord-e "is the one who is in front of us and who brings all the others to the top. [19659004] "We, our association, would like children to feel able to move, to practice sports and to keep up the spirits to go out and realize their dreams, it's a metaphor, we try to take them, thanks to the sport I do not necessarily feel able to leave. "

In the streets where Mbappe played football, the star – thanks to his sponsorship with Nike – set up a futsal court for the community.

" Thank you bruises! Thank you Kylian! "Reads a sign hanging on the fence.

READ: Kylian Mbappe – The" Phenomenon That Breathes and Sleeps Football "

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& # 39; This is Bondy, it is Mbappe & # 39;

Greater Paris, especially its diverse suburbs & sprawling, is arguably the most fertile breeding ground in the world for high-level footballing talent.

Mbappe, Paul Pogba, Golo Kante, Blaise Matuidi, Anthony Martial, Kingsley Coman and the Algerian Riyad Mahrez are all born, raised or studied in Ile-de-France.

Such an area is the commune of Bondy.

The town hall, a gray and gray building , is adorned with a large red banner, which reads as follows: "Thank you Kylian, all the people of Bondy are with you!"

The reputation of the suburbs – ba suburbs of the Parisian suburbs – suffered as a result of riots and terrorist attacks, some being described as "prohibited areas".

Nabil Larbi is a city councilor at Bondy City Hall, but he was also Mbappe's neighbor when the two children grew up in the town.

He believes that the success of Mbappe – and the achievement of such a diverse national team – serves as a reminder of the talent that resides in the suburbs.

"Mbappe is a pure product of Bondy," Larbi told CNN. "Mbappe comes from a mixed family, his father is Cameroonian, his mother is Algerian and it is a mixture of that, it is the image of Bondy and the image of the French team "

" Now we have to see diversity as a positive thing When we hear about the suburbs, when we hear about Bondy, we hear only negative things. [19659004] "But when you get to Bondy, you realize that it's a" false news "because everyone is welcome, it's nice to live in Bondy, I've been in Bondy for 35 years. years and I can say that diversity is a force for the city.

"It's France, it's Bondy, it's Mbappe."

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Larbi says that Mbappe is an "idol" and a "symbol of hope" for young Bondy, who have been invigorated by the success of the teenager. When they play and train, they can say, "I can be someone, I can be someone," he says.

At Jean Renoir School in Bondy, Mbappe's generosity is felt long before turning to the superstar

At a visit before the World Cup, Mbappe told the class of 25 students that he personally sent them to watch France against Denma. rk and Portugal against Morocco.

"It was a lot of emotion," says student Louise Monciero, 14. "Because we were there and Kylian came to us and see this guy from Bondy, like us, it was a dream that everything was possible.

" Someone like us can become a professional player and winning the World Cup, "added Zoe Crihan, 13.

The negative representation of the suburbs has affected community residents, but Larbi thinks that the success of the World Cup can help" I hope that France's victory means that everyone in France will remember that diversity is a strength and not the opposite, "says Larbi," Because of Kylian Mbappe, the Bondy suburbs. "

" So we are very proud, first of all, of Bondy and we are very proud of the Mbappe family because we know them. "19659004" "We have 55,000 people living in Bondy and everyone knows this family and we can say that everyone is proud as if it was our family, as if Kylian was our child.

"Kylian is our son, he is the son of Bondy, we are waiting for him, we are in a hurry to see him bring the cup to Bondy and I think we will make him a great party at Bondy when he returns "

France is crowned world champion after a 4-2 victory against Croatia

AS Bondy

Located 11 kilometers north-east of the center of Paris AS Bondy is the first club in Mbappe. .

The Mbappe family is a family with a sporty pedigree. Father Wilfried coached youth at the club for more than 20 years before retiring earlier in 2018, and his mother Fayza played handball for Bondy in the French Premier League.

Although the rise of Mbappe was simply dazzling, it was probably not a surprise to those who practiced this sport and those who knew it when they were children.

"Since Kylian Mbappe was young, we hoped that he would become someone and we were sure that he would become someone," says Larbi.

"When he played, we saw that he had more potential than the other players, when he was younger, he only played with bigger players and not with the same old people."

In early adolescence, Mbappe attended Clairefontaine – the official academy of the French Football Federation – and had already been judged by the English club Chelsea, where he even played a friendly match.

Then, at age 14, came a visit to Real Madrid where the now famous photo of a grinning Mbappe next to his idol Ronaldo was taken.

Manchester United and the current club of Paris Saint-Germain also sent out scouts but, finally, Mbappe decided to Monaco.

A "phenomenon"

"I knew that it was a phenomenon," said CNN Sport Vice President of AS Monaco Vadim Vasilyev, the man who gave his first professional contract in Mbappe.

"It's not just" very good ", it's not" top ", it's a phenomenal player, it has all the ingredients, of course that's what it's all about. has passed faster than anyone would have envisioned, even himself.] "He breathes football, sleeps football, nothing else in his mind.

"But he does it at this level and I'm not surprised at all, it confirms what we knew from the beginning, it's an amazing talent and this boy will become one of the best – it is not already "

But, without Vassiliev's intervention, Mbappe may never have succeeded in breaking into the first Monegasque team.

" I said, "What's the problem, let's sign it (from the youth team)," he recalls. "They said that it was not easy and it turned out that there were complications, he was not very happy and he really wanted to leave." 19659004 "" I started seeing his parents and I watched him at workout. first team to train with our coach Leonardo Jardim. They said, "Wow, how come this boy is in our academy and we did not know it?"

"We built a relationship of trust and then he signed his professional contract."

The comparisons were naturally attracted by the most prolific French striker, Thierry Henry; the career begins at AS Monaco and the electrical rhythm and skill, but Vasilyev believes that these are misplaced.

"I know Kylian and he does not like to be compared," says Vasilyev. "He respects Thierry a lot but he does not want to be compared to anyone"

"He is himself and he will write his own story in football and I agree with that."

Now he is there, still just a teenager, but already wrote the story.

The first player born after the triumph of 1998 to be chosen for the national team is now the man, or the child specifically, who drove his country to his second World Cup . At the age of 19, there is still plenty of time for Mbappe to continue writing