An ultimatum was laid down by Al-Khelaifi last month, pressuring Mbappe to sign an extension or leave. However, the player refused to entertain talks with Saudi club Al-Hilal, and no offer came from Spanish giants Real Madrid. There was evidence of a hangover from that loss in PSG's following match against Brest at the weekend, and indeed they would have dropped points had it not been for the striker. In the final minute of the match, he latched onto a pass from Lionel Messi, sped clear of the defence and rounded the goalkeeper to tap into an empty net. It was a finish that gave PSG a 2-1 win on what had promised to be a frustrating evening. Soon after, he took the World Cup trophy to Bondy, where thousands came out to greet him. “It was a way to say, ‘Thank you.’ I’ve never forgotten which soup I have eaten. So it was important for me to return there after my first World Cup and first international title.” (Note that word, “first”.) These revelations came out hours before a Champions League meeting with Benfica, but that did not stop him from converting a penalty to become Les Parisiens' leading marksman in the competition. Mbappé marvelled at the tension on the faces of other professionals, because he didn’t feel it himself. Everything came easily to him, without great sacrifice, he has said. When I ask about stress in a profession of hypercompetitive men, he shrugs: “Daily life is easy.”

His scoring run continued against Ajaccio a week later as he bagged a pair of second-half goals as PSG won in a 5-0 romp. The former Monaco man's first was a scrappy goal from inside the box, yet the second could barely have been any different as he scored a stunning volley that underlined his qualities and sent the Corsican side into Ligue 2. That run continued the following Saturday when PSG went to Reims in Ligue 1 and drew 0-0. Mbappe started the game but Lionel Messi missed out because of injury and Neymar was given a breather on the bench. He struggled to have an influence on the game and was booked in the closing stages for making a petulant foul. His burly father Wilfried sits beside us, but only once during the interview will he feel impelled to intervene. Meeting Mbappé, you come to understand how he hit football seemingly already fully formed. At 22, he has achieved more than most great players ever do. Can he take one more step and become the world’s best footballer? In the 2020-21 season, Mbappe scored 27 times from just 27 starts (31 total appearances) in Ligue 1, also contributing seven assists. He lives like a luxury prisoner, who cannot leave home without being mobbed. “It takes an organisation just to go out,” he says. He has joked that when his future children ask him about his youthful adventures, he won’t have any.Mbappé is thought to have been planning to join Real Madrid on a free transfer next summer, but the tone of PSG's reinstatement may prove otherwise. It is still unclear if he has agreed to sign an extension, but Real Madrid fans are livid. Some were hoping that a last-minute deal would be sorted this summer, but the player appears to have snubbed the Spanish giants once more in favour of his current club.

Winning the World Cup made Mbappé a national hero. Does he consider himself a star? “I think so. If your face is everywhere in the city, everywhere in the world, that’s for sure. Being a star is a status, but it doesn’t make me a better person than others.” Earlier this summer, Mbappe was dropped from the list of travelling players who joined PSG's pre-season tour of South Korea and Japan. Then, when the squad returned to training in Paris earlier this month, Mbappe was sent to train with the reserves and was even left to watch from the bench as PSG opened their Ligue 1 campaign against Lorient at the Parc des Princes on Saturday. In high-level football, nobody will make a place for you. Ego, self-love, isn’t just the caprice of stars. It’s also the will to give the best of yourself Kylian Mbappé will be available for next Paris Saint-Germain game and he’s now part of Luis Enrique team 🔴🔵 #PSG

Kylian Mbappe: 2022-23 PSG stats

On Sunday, Paris Saint-Germain made a sudden U-turn and announced that Kylian Mbappé has once again been reinstated into the Paris Saint-Germain first-team. The move comes after the player was banished into the "bomb squad" over the past few weeks due to his refusal to sign a contract extension. In 2013, when 14 years old, Mbappé ignored the advances of Chelsea and Real Madrid and went to Monaco instead. Neymar chose to stay at Santos for at least one extra season, enabling his advisers to expand a lucrative local sponsorship portfolio, before joining Barcelona for the kind of fee which guaranteed it would be almost impossible to leave the recruit on the bench. But there the similitudes end. In Mbappé’s case, it was a decision which the player was involved in. In Neymar’s, even if he was happy enough to go along with his father’s decision, that decision was taken for him.