Current Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappé admitted his admiration for the club's former star Pedro Miguel Pauleta as he spoke to This Is Paris.
Mbappé may be the man of the moment at the capital club, but the 20-year-old was the one with stars in his eyes as he discussed Pauleta, the Portuguese striker who had five prolific seasons in Paris between 2003 and 2008.
"You can't help but admire him. I am in awe of what he achieved with Paris Saint-Germain," Mbappé told This Is Paris on beIN Sports as the two met for a chat about football that will appear in a future episode.
"He will remain in the history books for many years to come if not forever. I think we could have worked well together. But you don't compare goals. He scored goals that I perhaps never could, because he had his own style. Goals aren't there to be compared - you just have to watch in admiration what he did with Paris Saint-Germain and remember all the great memories he left for the fans."
After arriving in the French capital in 2017, the World Cup winner with France has already made his mark with some stunning statistics and a slew of records, but at only just 20 years of age, he knows his game can still benefit from more maturity.
Room for improvement
"There are areas in which I'm better than in others. But I can still improve in every area, as there is nothing at which I'm perfect. There is always room to improve. I'm starting to rack up a bit of experience. It's now two and a half, three years that I've been playing top-flight football. I'm gaining in experience and my game will be different in four to five years, as I will have evolved. That's the way things go for footballers."
Last midweek's exit from the Coupe de la Ligue was a real shock for the Parisians, but Les Rouge et Bleu don't have time to dwell on the disappointment as they return their focus to their defence of the Ligue 1 Conforama title.
"We lost one title and we're disappointed. But we're not about to sit around lamenting our fate. We know that we didn't play well, that I didn't play well. We need to quickly turn the page even though we're disappointed to have lost a title. We lost and we need to look ahead to the next game and try to win it," said Mbappé, who scored in Saturday's 3-0 win at Amiens SC.
