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.
First goal
“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.
The following season, Mbappé's goals helped Monaco win Ligue 1 and reach the Champions League semifinals.
Six titles
Mbappé played alongside stars like Neymar, Ángel Di María, Edinson Cavani and Lionel Messi, and won six league titles with PSG. He will also finish as the league top scorer for the sixth time, and fifth outright after sharing the 2020 award with Monaco's Wissam Ben Yedder.
Mbappé confirmed last Friday he is leaving at season's end, having already told PSG in February.
He felt emotional when highlights of his career in French soccer were shown on a big screen during Monday night's awards ceremony.
“When I looked at the footage it felt like a part of my life (was) being extinguished,” he said. “There's the excitement about discovering something new but also emotion; the sentiment of leaving my country behind and carrying on my path.”
Ballon d'Or hopes
The path hasn't always been smooth.
He failed to score in the knockout stages of the pandemic-shortened Champions League in 2020 — missing good chances in the final when PSG lost to Bayern Munich 1-0 — and did not find the net in both legs of the recent semifinal defeats to Borussia Dortmund. Both games ended 1-0.
“People will always expect more from me," Mbappé said. "That's normal and I've always liked that.”
At Madrid, where Benzema became a club great with 354 goals and five Champions League titles, the demands on Mbappé will be much higher.
But it feels like a necessary step for a player with the oft-stated ambition of winning the men's Ballon d'Or and the Champions League many times.
