Kylian Mbappe has said playing at Chelsea as an 11-year-old alongside Tammy Abraham was a moment that put him on the right path that has led to his blockbuster switch to PSG.
The 18-year-old has joined the French mega-spenders on loan for the remainder of the season from Monaco, with a £166m option to buy at the end of the season which you would suspect would be taken up.
As an 11-year-old, Mbappe had a brief stint in west London alongside the likes of Abraham and Jeremie Boga, both still on the books of the Blues, albeit both currently on loan at Swansea and Birmingham City.
The exciting youngster had a special message for the Blues as well when he spoke about where he came from to now, this unbelievable move to the Parc des Princes.
“It was a wonderful experience,” he told The Telegraph. “Chelsea was the first great club, the first big club, that I went to visit. So it was a real discovery for me.
“I was coming from my grassroots, amateur club. It was a whole new world. Of course I had an idea what a great football club was like but I was really impressed by the working culture and the mentality of wanting to be better day-in, day-out.
“And visiting this infrastructure helped me, actually, with my development. I saw things differently because up until then I had just a French mentality and after that I could pick what was positive in other mentalities and build my own.”
“An idea has been reinforced since I was a kid – not just because I went to Chelsea. I always thought: ‘I want to be there, I want to be one of those big players who is trying to give people fun out of the game’. And I have given everything to reach that objective. Now I am on the other side of the camera, on the other side of the TV. That’s the only difference.”
