If breaking into Paris Saint-Germain’s first team aged 15 wasn’t enough pressure, try doing it with ‘Mbappe’ emblazoned across the back of your shirt.
That’s the task facing young Ethan Mbappe, attempting to follow in the record-breaking footsteps of big brother Kylian. The elder Mbappe may have only just reached 24, but he has already established himself as one of the best players to have ever played the game.
His exploits in Qatar, which saw him score eight times during France’s run to the final, already has him well on track to become the most prolific goalscorer in World Cup history. His record for PSG isn’t too shabby either, scoring 190 times in 237 games for the French champions.
Few can blame manager Christophe Galtier, then, for throwing another Mbappe into the mix, with Ethan already earning rave reviews. The midfielder will turn 16 over the festive period and could be rewarded with his first run in the senior side.
With many of his international team-mates out at the World Cup, Ethan was given a chance to impress during recent PSG friendlies. “Very excited for my debut in the pros,” he posted after the game with Paris FC.
And he’d struggle to have a better role model in adult football than his elder brother, who became a global superstar as a teenager. Kylian broke into the Monaco team aged 16, winning his first World Cup just two years later.
Ethan would do well to listen to his big bro then, who had some words of wisdom for Ethan before his breakthrough this winter.
Speaking to L’Equipe in 2021, he was asked what advice he’d give his younger sibling: “I tell him: ‘stay calm!’ But he is calm. I am the older one! It is the story of life but he is completely different to me, whether that is in his attitude, his character, his game.
“He needs to follow his path. But he will have something that I did not have: the pressure of a name. He will have to make a name for himself through his first name. The problem is that we have a similar face and people think we are the same!”
It was a different France player who many observers compared Ethan to though, with the combative midfielder looking more Adrien Rabiot than Kylian Mbappe. “This boy is a very elegant midfielder,” Clairefontaine’s former director, Jean-Claude Lafargue, told Le Parisien. “He is very much at ease, he is very intelligent. He is a player for the future, that is true.”
In a different timeline, the elder Mbappe brother wouldn’t have been able to train with Ethan, after a summer where he appeared destined to join Real Madrid. That didn’t transpire however, with the two Parisian born siblings now able to potentially line-up alongside one another in Ligue 1.
Kylian showed his commitment to the PSG cause, returning to training just days after his World Cup heartache in Qatar. "I'm very happy to see him," Galtier told PSG TV. "Kylian had a great World Cup. This return is also a strong signal to everyone.
"A player who may have been disappointed not to lift the most beautiful of trophies, even if he was top scorer at this World Cup [with eight goals].
"He wanted to get back in contact with the group very quickly and prepare for the deadlines which are coming up very quickly. We are very, very happy to see him."
