Fair play to the French star for this.
Kylian Mbappé and Pelé. That’s the club.
The France striker became only the second ever teenager to score in a World Cup final when he lashed home his side’s fourth goal against Croatia. It had been 60 years since that feat was last achieved, by Brazilian legend Pelé.
The 19-year-old had a superb tournament and won the ‘Best Young Player’ award to go with his World Cup winners’ medal.
Following the game, Rio Ferdinand urged Manchester United to ‘break the bank’ to secure Mbappe’s services but, one suspects, only Real Madrid or PSG (his current club) could afford him now.
That’s not to say Mbappé himself is motivated by money. Rather, it is his representatives that have done so well to secure him huge salaries and sponsorship deals.
As for his French salary, Mbappé and the rest of his teammates were all on an equal €19,250 (£17,000) per game. Added to that, each Les Bleus star got a €300,000 (£265,000) bonus for winning the World Cup.
According to French news outlet Le Parisien, Mbappe is donating all of his World Cup earnings to a charity that offers sporting training and experience to hospitalised and disabled children. Sebastien Ruffin, general manager of Premiers de Cordee [the charity] said:
“When his schedule allows it, he intervenes for us with pleasure. He has a very good [relationship] with children, he always finds the right [words] to encourage them. I sometimes even feel that [he] takes more pleasure to play with the kids than the kids themselves.”
Mbappe first started working with the charity in June of last year and has reportedly made plenty of visits over the past 12 months.
One imagines there will be much excitement there when the World Cup winner schedules in his next visit.
Many footballers are similarly charitable with their international fees of course, as Gary Neville and Gary Lineker explained two weeks ago.
