Mbappé’s tendency to weigh in on national affairs—and his savviness in doing so —has lent remarkable power to the voice of a single player. When Noël Le Graët, the president of the French Football Federation, criticized Zidane in early 2023, Mbappé reacted publicly on Twitter: “Zidane is France. We don’t disrespect a legend like that.” This short statement of disapproval made headlines, and was seen as part of what drove Le Graët to resign soon after.
Like Zidane before him, who shattered the deeply entrenched perception of what it meant to be north African in France, Mbappé’s ascent brought hope and inspiration to the banlieus of Paris, where kids still study his rise from the projects to the World Cup final. Mbappé has sought to give back to the community that birthed a superstar, working through the years with a number of charities and launching a children’s foundation called Inspired By KM. “It’s something that allows me to leave a much more important legacy than just the legacy of a player,” he says of the foundation. “Compassion. Solidarity. These are values that my parents and all the people along my path have tried to instill in me over time.”
As an ambassador not just for France but for a coterie of brands that have inked lucrative deals with the young star, Mbappé is practiced. When I ask where he likes to spend his vacations, he first says, as if by reflex, “wherever there’s a Fairmont.” (The hotel chain is one of Mbappé’s many “partners.” He signed his first endorsement deal, with Nike, when he was eight years old.) There are 131 million people following his Instagram account, which offers a curated peek into his closely guarded personal life amidst an endless stream of sponsorships. There’s an ad for a $2,200 espresso machine, ads for Nike boots, ads for noise-canceling headphones, ads for Hublot, ads for Oakley sunglasses, ads for the EA Sports games, ads for Dior. Football is a business, of course, and Mbappé is among the game’s most marketable faces. Brand Mbappé is estimated to pull in $30 million per year—on top of his salary from Madrid, pegged at around $16 million annually, after a $163 million signing bonus.
This man has scarcely known what it’s like to live outside of the public glare. “He knew from day one—even when he was really, really young—that if you become the best, that’s the life that you will have,” says Laurens. “Would he like to go and buy his baguettes in the boulangerie on a Sunday morning? Sure. But that’s never going to happen ever again. He would literally cause chaos. He can’t go to watch a movie at the cinema, because there would be rioting.”
The paparazzi have lately been tailing him around Paris in his Mini Cooper and on dates with his girlfriend, Spanish actor Ester Expósito. In early May, as Madrid struggled to keep up with arch rivals Barcelona in the Spanish league, Mbappé was caught by photographers cradling Exposito on a yacht off the coast of Sardinia. He had a good excuse: Madrid’s medical staff cleared him to take a few days off while recovering from a hamstring injury. But the images fueled further criticism from the club’s tempestuous fanbase. An online petition calling for Mbappe’s exit from the club—initially for Madrid fans, though it ultimately went viral—racked up millions of signatures.
The voracious appetite of the local tabloids might explain Mbappé’s chosen domicile: an eight-bedroom fortress, sold to him by former Real Madrid player Gareth Bale, in the Spanish capital’s exclusive and private La Finca neighborhood. The home boasts a seven-car garage, but when Mbappé bought the place, he didn’t know how to drive. He says he still gets nervous parking under the watchful glare of the paparazzi lenses.
