10 young players to watch
By Harvey Cruz
1. Kylian Mbappe
The best young player in the world. Kylian Mbappe was a revelation for Monaco in 2016-17, scoring 24 goals in all competitions, including six in a surprise run to the Champions League semifinal. Those performances earned him a move to Paris Saint-Germain, for whom he scored 17 goals this year, and a spot in the French national team, who are among the favorites in Russia.
He’s likely to start in a wide forward role for France alongside Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud or Ousmane Dembele (or Thomas Lemar or Nabil Fekir), and has a real chance, with group games against Australia, Peru and Denmark, of winning the Golden Boot. At 19 years old, there’s very little he can’t do.
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France disappointed in Brazil four years ago, and are coming off a devastating home loss in the final of Euro 2016. Their best players have improved since then, while this will be Mbappe’s first chance at a major tournament. With Griezmann and Paul Pogba, not to mention manager Didier Deschamps, receiving most of the attention, Mbappe isn’t under too much pressure.
He won’t benefit from the element of surprise some young players have at past tournaments — it’s hard to fly under the radar when you cost over $200 million — but France have enough talented attackers that he should get the space he needs to do his thing. If Les Bleus are to win their first World Cup since 1998, they’ll need Mbappe to shine.