In footsteps of France’s Mbappe, kids and parents dream big

A boy watches players of the football club AS Bondy, where Kylian Mbappe played as a kid, in green, during a match on the Leo Lagrange stadium in Bondy, east of Paris, Saturday. (AP)
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Updated 18 December 2022
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In footsteps of France’s Mbappe, kids and parents dream big

  • 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

BONDY, France: On the football fields where Kylian Mbappe honed the feints, dribbles and shots that all of France hopes 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 has 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 football 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 is sitting out this World Cup after hamstring surgery. Kante also made his football 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.”

Money or the lack of it is part of the reason. France invests heavily in sports facilities, and there are pitches, parks and playgrounds across the Paris region and beyond, along with plenty of youth coaches and teams.

But as is also true the world over, football is attractive as a cheap pastime for kids from poorer families and as a possible escape route from working-class neighborhoods like Bondy.

So the success of Mbappe and other idols inspires and motivates.

Sari, the coach of the under-13 team, says the club’s youngsters try so hard to play like Mbappe that they mimic and quickly master dribbles and feints like his. France defender William Saliba also is Bondy-born and made his start at the club. He, too, has his fans among its youngsters. Saliba has made one appearance for France in Qatar.

“Everyone learns by example,” says Sari, who was born the same year as 23-year-old Mbappe and played against him when they both were boys.

“Our good fortune is that we have examples in the national team.”

Parents say they understand that very few kids make it all the way to the top. But dreams cost nothing.

“When I watch the France team I get all emotional, because I think maybe one day my kid, too, will be with them,” Rabiah Bertrand says. Her son, 12-year-old Ilan, scored from the penalty spot Saturday while she watched shivering on the sidelines through the 8-a-side match played in freezing temperatures.

“They tell themselves that what Kylian can do, they can do,” she adds. “We parents dream, too. Everything is possible in life.”


Pakistan-born Australian Khawaja, set to retire from cricket, criticizes racial stereotypes

Updated 43 min 28 sec ago
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Pakistan-born Australian Khawaja, set to retire from cricket, criticizes racial stereotypes

  • Usman Khawaja said he felt he was treated ‘a little bit different, even to now,’ because of his Pakistan and Muslim background
  • Khawaja was criticized in the days leading up to the Perth match for golfing twice, not taking part in an optional training session

Veteran Australia batter Usman Khawaja has announced he will retire from international cricket after the fifth Ashes test beginning Sunday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

He didn’t go quietly.

The Pakistan-born Khawaja, who was the first Muslim to play for Australia, used his retirement announcement Friday to criticize the “racial” stereotyping he experienced during his career.

It will be the 39-year-old Khawaja’s 88th and final test — played at the ground where he began his first-class career. Khawaja scored his first Ashes century at the SCG with 171 against England in 2018.

It was also at that the SCG where he revived his career at age 35, scoring two centuries against England. That prompted one of the great late-career revivals, as Khawaja hit seven centuries in his next two years back in the side.

But Khawaja’s position had come under scrutiny and criticism this season after being unable to open in the first Ashes test in Perth due to back spasms and then missing the Brisbane test with the injury.

He was then initially left out in Adelaide until Steve Smith’s vertigo allowed Khawaja to return, before an 82 in the first innings there ensured he would stay in the side for the fourth test in Melbourne. Australia, with a 3-1 lead going into the fifth test, has retained the Ashes.

Khawaja said he felt he was treated “a little bit different, even to now,” because of his Pakistan and Muslim background.

“Different in the way I’ve been treated, different in how things have happened,” he said at a media conference in Sydney. “I had back spasms, it was something I couldn’t control. The way the media and the past players came out and attacked me . . . I copped it for about five days straight. Everyone was piling in.

“Once the racial stereotypes came in, of me being lazy, it was things I’ve dealt with my whole life. Pakistani, West Indian, colored players...we’re selfish, we only care about ourselves, we don’t care about the team, we don’t train hard enough.”

Khawaja was criticized in the days leading up to the Perth match for golfing twice and not taking part in an optional training session. Some commentators suggested the golf might have been responsible for his back issues.

“I can give you countless number of guys who have played golf the day before a match and have been injured, but you guys haven’t said a thing,” Khawaja told the assembled media.

“I can give you even more examples of guys who have had 15 schooners (large glasses of beer) the night before a game and have then been injured, but no one said a word because they were just being ‘Aussie larrikins,’ they were just being lads. But when I get injured, everyone went at my credibility and who I am as a person.”

Khawaja said he knew the end of his career was imminent.

“I guess moving into this series, I had an inkling this would be the last series,” he said. “I’m glad I can go out on my own terms.”

Khawaja has scored 6,206 runs at an average of 43.49 in his 87 tests with 16 centuries and 28 half-centuries.

“Usman has made a huge contribution to Australian cricket both through his outstanding achievements as one of our most stylish and resilient batters . . . and off field, particularly through the Usman Khawaja Foundation,” Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said in a statement.

“Usman has been one of Australia’s most reliable opening batters and testament to his success was him being named ICC test cricketer of the year the same season that Australia won the World Test Championship (in 2023).”

Khawaja said his No. 1 emotion on announcing his retirement was “contentment.”

“I’m very lucky to have played so many games for Australia the way I have,” Khawaja said. “I hope I have inspired people along the way.”