Buried deep in Monaco’s archive is black-and-white footage of a teenage Kylian Mbappe, sitting in front of a board as a teacher takes a lesson.
Like much of the early footage of Mbappe, the first thing that catches the eye is his sense of mischief, humour and fun.
In another clip, he jumps on a trampoline, spelling out Monaco letter-by-letter at the top of each bounce, in the style of an American cheerleader.
But with the levity was an underlying seriousness.
Mbappe had an understanding, even as a teenager, of a wider, bigger plan; a programme of parental planning and forethought now widely known as ‘Project Mbappe’.
In the classroom footage, Mbappe is learning languages, most significantly Spanish.
“Maybe in the future it can help me,” he says. “Even when it comes to interviews, to express myself in French or other languages if it’s necessary.”
This summer, that schoolboy Spanish is set to come in useful.
Having run down his contract at Paris St-Germain, the 25-year-old is poised to be confirmed as Real Madrid’s newest galactico.
It is the transfer Mbappe has dreamed of ever since he pinned posters of Madrid hero Cristiano Ronaldo on his bedroom wall.
It is the transfer that could ultimately deliver him the game’s biggest trophies.
And it is the transfer that, according to an iconic compatriot, could ultimately make him the most decorated footballer of all time.
“He still has 10 years at the top level and that is quite frightening when you look at what he has already achieved,” says Arsene Wenger, the former Arsenal manager who is now Fifa’s chief of global football development.
“This stage of his career, is where you know your job, you are at the prime, the peak of your physical potential.
“He has no limitations.
“He can be at 90% and will still be the best. But how much does he want to push himself? Does he have a clear image of where he wants to go?”
Mbappe and, perhaps more pertinently, his entire family, have always had a definitive direction of travel, zeroing in on the top of the global game.
“Kylian was just school and football,” says childhood friend Rayan Viyanga in a new BBC Sport documentary called Mbappe. “School, football, home.”
Home for Mbappe was the outskirts of Paris. He was born in a banlieue (suburb) called Bondy in 1998, months after France lifted the World Cup for the first time.
The victorious class of ‘98 featured a clutch of players from the outskirts of Paris – Lilian Thuram and Thierry Henry for example – and it remains a hotbed of talent. Thirty players at the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar were born in the vicinity of France’s capital.
Bondy was the first place he returned to after lifting the World Cup in 2018.
“It’s the city and place where I grew up, I’m very proud to come back here,” he says, beaming, in footage from the time.
Bondy was also the proving ground where a prodigy was created.
The Mbappe family flat overlooked the AS Bondy football pitches. His father Wilfried was a player turned coach.
As a result, Mbappe – whose mother Fayza Lamari is a former professional handball player – was to be found regularly kicking about with boys twice his size. The mismatches were all part of the plan.
“Kylian was already one step ahead of many other players at AS Bondy,” Viyanga says. “He was advanced for his age group and wanted to play with the best.
“That was a strict rule of his, to play with the best. He never set himself any limits. So he might come up against someone two metres tall. His dad, who was the coach, always put him up against the best defenders in matches.”
Playing against Bondy’s best was no mean feat given the tally of professional footballers among their alumni – which includes Arsenal defender William Saliba – is in double figures.
Project Mbappe didn’t stop there.
While a teenage Mbappe pinned up pictures of Ronaldo and watched old footage of Zinedine Zidane, another Real Madrid superstar, there was a third role model far closer to home – Jires Kembo Ekoko, his adopted brother.
Ekoko was taken in by Mbappe’s parents when he was nine and was selected for the French Federation’s national academy at Clairefontaine before playing professionally for Rennes in Ligue 1.
Ekoko was more than a decade older than Mbappe but had a big impact.
At the age of six, Mbappe had learned the French national anthem, explaining to his teacher that “one day, I’ll play in the World Cup for France”.
It wasn’t only Wilfried and Fayza who believed Mbappe was destined for big things.
Nike came calling with free shoes when he was just 10. A little over six years later, he made his first-team debut for Monaco. But the progress between those two points was not smooth.
Allan Momege was a classmate of Mbappe at Clairefontaine.
“At the time I met him, he wasn’t the player who impressed me the most,” Momege says of Mbappe in the BBC Sport documentary.
“He didn’t stand out for me as a player during the trials. The first time I saw him play, I didn’t think, ‘Wow!’
“There were regional selections and Kylian wasn’t in the best team.”
Matt Spiro, an author and French football expert, echoes Momege.
“Kylian initially found it a bit difficult at Clairefontaine,” he says. “He was there for two years and during the first year, he certainly wasn’t the best in his group. I think even Kylian would admit that.
“Mbappe would play out on the wing and would quite frequently be in a sulky mood. He had a growth spurt, I think towards the end of his first year in Clairefontaine, and by the second year, he was really starting to look the business.
