19-year-old soccer star Kylian Mbappé just helped win France the World Cup — here's what you need to know about him

pulse

July 16, 2018 12:32 AM

Kylian Mbappé played a major role in France's success at the World Cup this year. The 19-year-old Frenchman comes from an extremely sporty French family, and he's attended the country's most elite footballer training center.

19-year-old
Brazil legend Pel

Kylian helped France clinch its second-ever World Cup title on Sunday, scoring the fourth goal for France in its 4-2 win over Croatia.

It was one of

Some are just getting to know the teenager, but the truth is 19-year-old has already had quite an impressive career, starting when he was a babe.

Growing up in the northern Parisian suburb of Bondy, practically lived at the local soccer club, where soccer pros asserted he was a star from day one.

""He was always here and learning about football, even as a toddler."

By age 12, was training at France's premiere Clairefontaine football center. At 14, he was playing with Monaco's professional club, even before completing his high school diploma at age 17.

From Monaco, most expensive teenager the soccer world has ever seen. It cost the team a whopping 180 million euros (more than $210 million USD), bonuses not included, to seal the deal with , according to ESPN.

Brazilian legend Pelplayed in the 1958 final at age 17. He took Sunday's news in stride, writing on Twitter that "If Kylian keeps equalling my records like this, I may have to dust my boots off again..."

The young star is part of a new crop of players on the French national team this year. And he is not the only one of them who hails from the Parisian suburbs. The gritty, concrete blocks of the northern "banlieue" made headlines as scenes of angry riots in 2005, and the largely minority, working-class neighborhoods are still known as pockets around the city where unemployment and violence can remain high. Residents argue that life in the suburbs is still not equal.

But at least eight of the 23 players on the French World Cup team were born and raised in the banlieue, according to a recent count by The New York Times.

Around Paris, kids proudly wear jerseys, and odes to him are emblazoned in ads on the Stade de France: