Euro 2024: Kylian Mbapp will have to overcome idol Cristiano Ronaldo to achieve dream

Madrid attempted to sign Mbappé for the first time in December 2012, when he was invited to Madrid for a week, taken to a game and to the club’s Valdebebas training ground where he met Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.

“He is a hero from my childhood and it was amazing to meet him when I visited Valdebebas,” he once told Spanish sports daily Marca.

It has been a frustrating tournament so far for Mbappé and France, with the 25-year-old yet to find his best form at the tournament after months of speculation about his club future and then the broken nose that overshadowed his team’s opening game.

He will again sport a protective face mask in Hamburg, a necessity following the injury he suffered in the 1-0 win against Austria.

Mbappé said before the last-16 victory against Belgium that he hated having to wear the mask and that it made him feel like he was watching the tournament with virtual reality goggles on.

Yet he is captain of a France team that has reached the quarter-finals despite scoring only three goals in four matches, one his penalty in a 1-1 draw with Poland and the other two coming from own goals.

“My Euros did not start like I wanted but I am here to help the team and I really want to have success with this team,” Mbappé said just before the 1-0 victory against Belgium.

“The Euros is the only thing I have not won with the national team so I really want to win it.”

He and his team have had chances, but have not been taking them.

France have an Expected Goals (XG; a metric used to measure the quality of a chance created) of almost seven, bettered only by Spain, Portugal and Germany.

Mbappé’s own XG is 2.54, with only Cristiano Ronaldo and Germany’s Kai Havertz having a higher number.

It is a source of frustration for Mbappé that he has lit up the past two World Cups but has not enjoyed the same success at the Euros.

He starred as France became world champions in Russia in 2018 and again in Qatar in 2022, when he netted a hat-trick in their final defeat against Argentina.

Mbappé has 12 World Cup goals, but his penalty against Poland is his only goal in seven appearances at the Euros.

Three years ago, he failed to find the net before missing the crucial penalty in the shoot-out defeat by Switzerland in the last 16.

France assistant coach Guy Stephan said Mbappé had been “traumatised” by the collision with Austria’s Kevin Danso that left him with the broken nose.

The fact that his final season at Paris Saint-Germain was often difficult may not have helped either.

He scored 44 goals, but Mbappé was also frozen out of the squad at the start of the campaign after telling the club he did not plan to extend his contract beyond this year.

His playing time was again reduced in the final three months of the season, once he had confirmed that he would be leaving.

Sources recently said that Mbappé was still trying to get PSG to pay significant sums of money owed to him in wages.

Yet France will hope he finds extra motivation against Portugal as he comes up against his boyhood hero.

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