A FIFA World Cup winner and three-time Ligue 1 Conforama champion at the tender age of 21, it is perhaps unsurprising that Kylian Mbappé has been earning plaudits from former greats of the French game.
A FIFA World Cup winner and three-time Ligue 1 Conforama champion at the tender age of 21, it is perhaps unsurprising that Kylian Mbappé has been earning plaudits from former greats of the French game.
Player of the season, top scorer and a title winner once again last year, the unstoppable Mbappé is on the right track to repeating such successes again this term. With 15 goals in 18 games, the young forward has fast become your favourite player of yesteryear's favourite player.
"He's a rare talent; a Ronaldo, a Messi, the type of player that doesn't come around every day," Pauleta, who scored 109 goals for PSG between 2003 and 2008, explained to the Ligue 1 Show on beIN SPORTS.
"Kylian's an enormous talent, a phenomenon. He'll continue to shine for the next 10 or 15 years! It's simply up to him to keep working with the same application, the same drive to be the best."
Mbappé trails Pauleta by just 25 goals in PSG's list of all-time top scorers - a number he is sure to haul in next season if not this. A 13-time goalscorer for France, he might take longer to catch up with Jean Pierre-Papin's record of 30 goals in 54 games for Les Bleus, but the Olympique de Marseille legend is, like Pauleta, and avid fan.
"He's remarkably fast, capable of scoring goals from all sorts of positions," said the 56-year-old, who won four French top-flight titles with OM between 1989 and 1992. "He's so cool in front of goal, so quick-thinking, and so deadly. He has everything to become the perfect player."
Mbappé led the scoring charts in Ligue 1 Conforama last season with 33 - some 11 more than Nicolas Pépé, who has since swapped LOSC for Arsenal in the English Premier League. Papin was the top scorer in France on five occasions, and sees little reasons why Mbappé shouldn't emulate him.
"He still needs to confirm he can keep this level up every season," he said. "He's set the bar so high it's going to be tough for him. For me, his only little fault is his heading ability, but otherwise he has everything he needs to succeed at the highest level!"
Mbappé may have only scored one header this season - in the 5-0 win over Club Brugge in the UEFA Champions League group stage - but Ludovic Giuly, whose last game with AS Monaco game three years before Mbappé's first, thinks the PSG talisman has all the tools to succeed Ronaldo and Messi as the world's best player.
"We're lucky, he's French. Let's just enjoy that!" he said. "What he's achieved at his age is incredible. He seamlessly switched between Monaco and Paris, with incredible statistics. He does everything at 200 miles per hour, and efficiently too. I love watching him play!
"He's still got room to improve, and at this point, I don't think there's a single other player like Kylian around. It might stay that way some time, too!"
