If Mbappé Hadn’t Become a Footballer, He Wanted to Be… a Model!

When he was a teenager, long before stepping onto professional pitches, Kylian Mbappé already had a very precise idea of what he would do if his football dream didn’t come true. In his childhood bedroom in Bondy, plastered with posters of Cristiano Ronaldo, the 14-year-old boy made a surprising confidence to a reporter from L’Équipe:

This anecdote is one his paternal grandmother, Christine Mbappé, has never forgotten. She still laughs out loud today remembering her grandson’s aesthetic ambitions, while mischievously speaking with l’Equipe:

“If I don’t succeed in football, I’ll be a model.”

The Love of Elegance and Luxury Brands

Christine Mbappé didn’t know how right she was. Today, the Real Madrid striker has become a true global fashion icon. Since December 2021, he has been the official ambassador for the prestigious fashion house Dior, representing both its menswear collections and its famous fragrance, Sauvage. He also collaborates with other luxury brands, such as Rimowa and the watchmaker Hublot.

Far from the eccentricities of some of his peers, Mbappé describes his own style as “chic and understated.” While he loves fashion, he rejects a flashy look:

This passion is actually a family affair. His mother, Fayza Lamari, regularly handles buying his clothes because they share the exact same tastes. During his photoshoots, such as for the cover of GQ, he enjoys swapping his relatively discreet steel and diamond Hublot Big Bang watch for much more conspicuous models. This attraction to fashion and absolute control of his image are so strong that his inner circle negotiated for him to retain 80% of his image rights at Real Madrid and had his name as well as his celebration poses registered as European trademarks.

Too Short for the Runway, But Built for Cinema?

While Kylian Mbappé regularly appears on the covers of fashion or lifestyle magazines like GQ or Vanity Fair, a full-time career as a runway model could have hit a purely physical criterion: his height. Standing between 1.78 m and 1.80 m, he falls slightly below the usual standards for male haute couture models, who generally measure over 1.85 m.

However, if he hadn’t been able to walk the Fashion Week runways, Kylian Mbappé would have made an excellent actor. As a child in Bondy, he didn’t just play football: to channel his overflowing energy, his parents had enrolled him in drama, singing, and transverse flute classes.

This early taste for show business and his remarkable oral fluency make him a man particularly at ease under the spotlight. Observers also note that he manages his public image and media appearances in the manner of “certain film actors, who combine shyness and eccentricity.” Capable of expressing himself in remarkably fluent English and instantly capturing the eye of the camera, the boy whom his Monaco classmates used to stage under the title of “El Maestro” would undoubtedly have found his place on movie sets if football stadiums hadn’t adopted him first.