In footsteps of Mbappe, French kids dream big

Club where superstar started out typical of France's feted talent system

On the soccer fields where Kylian Mbappe honed the feints, dribbles and shots that all of France hoped to see in the World Cup final, another generation of French kids with big dreams is already hard at work trying to follow in the superstar's footsteps.

On the touchline, coach Rohat Sari looked on approvingly Saturday as his young players rampaged to a 10-0 victory for AS Bondy, the club in the Paris outskirts where Mbappe in his boyhood first discovered his knack and taste for running rings around other players.

Now, with those same skills on his sport's biggest stage, Mbappe not only had a chance on Sunday to emulate Brazilian great Pele by winning a second World Cup but also to demonstrate how his success is no accident.

Mbappe is the product of a breathtakingly successful system, the latest golden name in a non-stop torrent of top-notch talent constantly being churned out by France, which arguably is outstripping the likes of Brazil, Germany and other powerhouses as a factory of football players.

Since the Cold War ended, no country has had more success in ensuring that one winning generation is then followed by others. France's first World Cup triumph of 1998 — which was also momentous for French soccer because that was the year Mbappe was born — was followed by its national team reaching the final again in 2006 (lost to Italy), 2018 (won against Croatia) and again now in Qatar.

Although Brazil, Germany and Italy still have more titles overall, making the final for the fourth time in 24 years allows France to lay claim to being the World Cup's top performer of the last three decades, even if it loses to Argentina on Sunday.

Small clubs like AS Bondy, where Mbappe enrolled as a boy and quickly caught attention as a fleet-footed prodigy, are start points on France's football production lines. Just as Mbappe did when he was a youngster, boys following in his wake picture themselves becoming professional footballers — not least because Mbappe and others who wore the club's green jersey are setting the example.

"It motivates me, boosts me, makes me want to work even harder," says Yacine Ngamatah, age 12.He scored four of his team's 10 goals on Saturday against a club from another Paris suburb. The punchy midfielder has already tried out with a professional team, Dijon, which plays in the second tier of the French league.

Because Ngamatah runs and runs, seemingly never tiring, his teammates' nickname for him is N'Golo Kante, after France's indefatigable midfielder who sat out this World Cup after hamstring surgery. Kante also made his soccer start in a Paris-region team, Suresnes.

"We have nothing to envy the Brazilians," says Yacine's father, Eric Ousmane Ngamatah. "There's such a big reservoir of players now in France, especially the Paris region."