Mbappé farewells French league when PSG visits Metz in final round
Friday, 17 May 2024
PARIS, May 16 (AP): Nine years after his debut, Kylian Mbappé bids farewell to the French league when Paris Saint-Germain visits struggling Metz on Sunday.
He has a last chance to add to his club-record tally of 256 goals, including 191 in the league.
"A page is turning, a chapter of my life is closing," the 25-year-old Mbappé said after being voted by his peers as the French league's best player for the fifth time. "I leave with my head held high, having done all that I could."
The French Cup final on May 25 against Lyon will be his last game in a PSG jersey, then Mbappé makes a widely expected move to join Spanish giant Real Madrid. Mbappé and Madrid have yet to announce the deal.
"I will miss it," Mbappé said of playing in France. "It's the only league I've known."
Mbappé was approaching his 17th birthday when he went on as a substitute for Monaco at Stade Louis II in December 2015. A few months later he scored his first goal, breaking France great Thierry Henry's record as the club's youngest scorer.
He hadn't even signed his first professional contract yet but the secret was out that there was a star in the making; a talent not seen in Ligue 1 since Karim Benzema broke into the Lyon side at 17.