French professional footballer Kylian Mbappe is widely recognised as one of the best players in the world. His talent has earned him titles and enormous wealth. No doubt that Kylian Mbappe’s salary — which makes the biggest contribution to his net worth — is so incredibly high that analysts estimate he is set to be the richest-paid athlete very soon.
However, money and club plaudits aside, what perhaps makes the French professional soccer player more special is that he is a FIFA World Cup winner — a coveted distinction that has eluded Portuguese icon Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentine legend Lionel Messi, the latter of whom is Mbappe’s teammate at Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
Mbappe is a prolific footballer who can easily outrun and outclass defenders with his speed and dribbling. Add to that his perfection at landing the ball at the back of the net and Mbappe has made him a key forward for his club as well as his national squad.
Mbappe displays a PSG shirt bearing “2025” indicating his contract extension with the club till 2025. (Image credit: @KMbappe/Twitter)
Mbappe was just short of his 17th birthday when he made his senior club debut for Ligue 1 club Monaco on 2 December 2015. He came in as a substitute for just two minutes in a match against Caen. In less than a year since making his senior debut, Mbappe broke a few records held by Thierry Henry — the French footballing great to whom he was compared since his junior days.
Highly sought after by top-flight European clubs, Mbappe stayed on with Monaco till the end of the 2017 season and helped the club win the Ligue 1 title.
PSG signed the then-18-year-old Mbappe initially on a one-year loan from Monaco in August 2017 to stay within UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. The following season, PSG took Mbappe permanently for a record transfer fee of around USD 190 million, plus bonuses. Mbappe, thus, set the record for the highest transfer fee ever paid for a teenager and the second-highest in the history of football behind Brazilian star and fellow PSG comrade, Neymar Jr.
Goals and championships
The PSG forward does his trademark celebration after scoring a goal during a match. (Image credit: @KMbappe/Twitter)
Mbappe’s rapid rise of to the top of the game has come on the back of his exceptional goal-scoring ability and his equally skilled assists, which have helped his teammates at Monaco, PSG and the French national team in scoring goals.
In fact, Mbappe’s 15 goals in his final season with Monaco when the club lifted Ligue 1 came in just 1501 minutes and also recorded eight assists. Numerically, Mbappe was involved in a league goal every 65 minutes. According to Sky Sports, no other player in France could reach double figures in such a short time.
Mbappe is a five-time Ligue 1 champion, three-time French Cup winner, two-time French League Cup winner and three-time French Super Cup champion. He has also been Ligue 1’s top scorer for four consecutive seasons.
Playing for the France national team, he scored four goals at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. In the process, he became the youngest French goalscorer in World Cup history, the second teenager to score two goals in a World Cup match after Pele, and the second teenager after Pele to score in a World Cup final match. He was, therefore, named the winner of FIFA World Cup Best Young Player and won the French Player of the Year Award.
The future the highest-paid athlete in the world?
The French footballer strikes a pose on the ground in PSG colours. (Image credit: @KMbappe/Twitter)
Mbappe has not been among the top 10 of Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid athletes so far. As per the publication’s 2022 list, which was topped by Messi, Mbappe ranks 35th with total earnings of USD 43 million.
The figure is around a third of Messi’s total of USD 130 million and less than half of Ronaldo’s USD 115 million.
Kylian Mbappe’s salary and bonuses on-field amounted to USD 28 million of the total for the period considered by Forbes for the study. The rest was made up of endorsements amounting to USD 15 million.
However, everything appears set for a major change in Kylian Mbappe’s salary, life and overall fortune in 2023.
On 7 October 2022, Forbes published a report on the highest-earning footballers. Accordingly, Mbappe will earn USD 128 million for the 2022-23 season before taxes and agents’ fees. The publication said that it would be “a record for our annual ranking of the world’s highest-paid soccer players that lands him the No. 1 spot.”
The PSG star agreed on a new deal to stay on with his club for three more years, which is expected to bring his salary and bonuses amounting to USD 110 million for the ongoing season. This figure will be added to an estimated USD 18 million he is expected to make from annual endorsements of brands such as Nike, Hublot, Panini, Oakley and Dior.
Also in mid-2022, Mbappe re-appeared on the cover of the acclaimed FIFA video game by EA Sports for the third year in a row. He has also become an investor and ambassador of the fantasy NFT platform, Sorare.
Forbes reports that he has also founded his own production company named Zebra Valley.
Expensive things Kylian Mbappe owns
Mbappe on the airstair of a private aircraft. The footballer doesn’t, however, own any. (Image credit: @k.mbappe/Instagram)
Kylian Mbappe’s salary is enough to get him any of the fastest and most luxurious wheels on the road, palatial mansions across France and beyond, private jets that can fly him anywhere, and superyachts of the grandest size. Yet, Mbappe is known to be a very private person and doesn’t usually reveal more about his personal life or flaunt his wealth on social media. Information about his personal properties, if any, is unclear.
Some reports, however, indicate that he owns a few cars. However, he has never been spotted driving any, perhaps because he famously admitted in 2017 that he doesn’t have a driver’s license.
“It’s one of the disadvantages of succeeding early. I missed simple things like having a driver’s license. I think everyone has one. For so many people, a license is an obligation, but it wasn’t for me. Licenses are often synonymous with autonomy, but I had my autonomy so early that I’ve had drivers at my disposal. It was never a priority,” he was quoted as saying by Bleacher Report.
At the time, his club was trying to find a way to get him to clear driving school and get a license. It is not known if he now has one.
Ferrari 488 Pista
A promotional picture showing a Ferrari 488 Pista. (Image credit: Ferrari)
According to Goal.com, the footballer owns a Ferrari 488 Pista, worth around USD 550,000 — a price that is certainly high but easily affordable with Kylian Mbappe’s salary.
The 488 Pista is perhaps the best known among all the cars the PSG forward has. According to Ferrari, the car has the “most powerful V8 engine in the Maranello marque’s history” and the “highest level yet of technological transfer from racing.”
The car can go 0-100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 340 km/h.
Mercedes-Benz V Class
The French footballer strikes a pose for the cameras as he walks away from a fleet of cars. (Image credit: @k.mbappe/Instagram)
The Mercedes-Benz V Class is a large-size van capable of seating seven. It is 5.37 metres long, 1.92 metres wide, and has a height of 1.88 metres. The car delivers a mileage of 16 km/litre, depending on the variant and fuel. It is not designed for speed and can go up to 200 km/h, as per estimates.
The car, however, has all the luxuries that can be found on premium SUVs such as wood trim on the dashboard, customisable leather seats, LED-illuminated cup holsters and a large infotainment display among others. The car costs only around USD 140,000.
Volkswagen Tiguan
Mbappe poses before a Volkswagen. (Image credit: @k.mbappe/Instagram)
Mbappe is usually seen in and around a Volkswagen. According to Goal.com, he has at least three Volkswagen four-wheelers.
One of them is the Volkswagen Tiguan, which is powered by a 16-valve, 2.0L, 184-hp turbocharged engine. Equipped with several of Volkswagen’s top-of-the-line car features, the Tiguan has unique driving modes that range from off-road to snow mode.
The all-family car starts at USD 26,950 and can go up to USD 40,000.
Volkswagen Touareg
A white Volkswagen Touareg R50 model. (Image credit: Lemon3/CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons)
Touareg is another Volkswagen car that Mbappe is believed to be owning. Like Taigun, Touareg is also a family car. Named after the nomadic Tuareg people of North Africa, the 2017 model of the luxurious car came with a 3.6-litre VR6 engine delivering 280 horsepower. At the time, the Touareg was priced at USD 49,495 for the V6 Sport equipped with Volkswagen technology.
Volkswagen Multivan
A promotional picture shows a new Volkswagen Multivan. (Image credit: Volkswagen)
With up to seven seats and a flexible interior, the USD 67,000 car is a multi-utility vehicle from Volkswagen. It is not clear what model the French forward owns, but as per Volkswagen, the car’s latest version “pays homage to the DNA of its predecessors, dating back to the 1985 Transporter T3.”
Engine options include eHybrid and purely electric apart from conventional petrol and diesel. The electric power provides a maximum range of up to 48 km.
source: lifestyleasia.com/
