Who is Ethan Mbappe and could he be even better than his brother Kylian?
- Matt Whiley
- 7 February 2022
He’s only just turned 15 but Ethan Mbappe is already drawing admiring glances. Luckily for Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain they have already got him signed up.
Kylian Mbappe is one of the world's most highly-rated footballing talents.
Still just 23, he has the world at his feet and could go on to be one of the greatest the game has ever seen. Yet, there is another Mbappe brother, who, although still in his brother's shadow for now, unsurprisingly has many observers very excited.
Eight years younger than his globally-famous sibling, Ethan Mbappe is also on PSG's books. Planet Sport brings you all you need to know about Mbappe the younger.
Ethan Mbappe - Early life and beginnings
Jires Kembo Ekoko, Ethan Mbappe's half brother
Fifteen-year-old Ethan is the full brother of Kylian, born on December 29, 2006, to father Wilfried Mbappe and mother Fayza Lamari. He was born in Montreuil, an inner-eastern suburb of Paris, which is just a stone's throw from the 19th arrondissement of the French capital where his elder brother was born in 1998.
He is also the half-brother of retired French forward Jires Kembo Ekoko, who is older than him by almost 19 years and who spent an 18-year career at clubs including Stade Rennais, Al-Ain in the UAE and Bursaspor in Turkey.
Ethan holds joint citizenship of France and Algeria, with his mother having been born in the latter, and his first footballing experience came at the age of eight, in the youth set-up of AS Bondy. That is the same club where his elder brother and half-brother also began, and it is there where he first began to blossom.
PSG swoop for Mbappe…twice
In 2017, Ethan had been playing for Bondy for just two years, when Paris Saint-Germain moved for his older brother. Although their initial signing of Kylian was on loan, the French champions agreed a deal in advance with his then-club, Monaco, to sign him permanently for upwards of £130million.
But what did this mean for 10-year-old Ethan, asides from being delighted for his sibling? Well, at the point of splashing out for Kylian, PSG also clocked the rapidly-developing youngster, who was set on exactly the same career path. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, they moved quickly to bring both Mbappe siblings under the same club banner, transferring Ethan into their youth set-up.
Ethan Mbappe signs formal terms with PSG
Operating primarily as a central midfielder, though also on occasion able to drop back into the defensive areas, Ethan would go on to play at several levels of PSG's academy for four years, until the summer of 2021. It was at that point that his ability had impressed the club's hierarchy so much that the 14-year-old was elevated to the under-17s.
In order to make their arrangement a little more formal, PSG signed him to a three-year-deal, which is currently around seven months old, expiring in June 2024.
The younger Mbappe is taking to the higher level like a duck to water, showing off his seriously impressive technical ability in the heart of midfield. In contrast to his brother, he is left-footed.
International recognition for Ethan Mbappe
Although he is still at an age which makes him unable to enter a bar in France without a legal guardian, Ethan has already been noticed by the national team. He has not yet played a game for a French representative team, but he was called up for a training camp with the under-16s late last year.
The camp took place in December at the Centre Technique National Fernand Sastre, more commonly known as Clairefontaine, which is the French Football Federation's high-performance centre located 30 miles south west of Paris. Clearly, there are many in higher places who regard Ethan particularly well, and although any early optimism may have been inflated due to the exploits of his brother, he is now steadily making a name for himself in his own right.
He should be watched closely over the coming years.
