The road to godhood starting from Ligue 1 Chapter 050

“What are you doing here?”

Gaël told Pierre to wait for a moment, then walked over to Mbappé. He greeted the equally young player next to Mbappé.

Anyone who could make it to Clairefontaine definitely had talent.

It was just a matter of how they developed later on.

Gaël had no impression of this child, which meant he probably wouldn’t become a famous player in the future.

Mbappé scratched his head and said, “I heard that many national team players are reporting to Clairefontaine today, so I came to see the excitement.”

Momège was stunned. Wasn’t he here to wait for someone?

After a brief chat, Gaël smiled and glanced at his watch. He said to Mbappé, “You can also become a member of the national team in the future. Keep training hard. I have to go now; I need to report to the U 21 team.”

“Okay, goodbye.” Mbappé nodded, looking like he wanted to say more.

As Gaël was about to leave, Mbappé finally spoke, “Gaël, for the Coupe de France match at the end of the month, I’ll be there. Will you be playing?”

“Bastia?” Gaël was a bit confused. Why would Mbappé go to Bastia to watch a game?

Mbappé nodded and explained, “Yes, you’ll be playing against Rennes. My brother plays for Rennes, and our whole family will go to watch him.”

“Your brother?”

This made Gaël even more confused. Huh? Mbappé had a brother? Didn’t he only have a younger brother, Ethan Mbappé?

“Yes, Jirès Kembo Ekoko. He was my idol when I was little and greatly inspired me. He’s always played for Rennes, and he plays the same position as you, right winger. He’s very fast too!”

Gaël pondered Mbappé’s words for a moment. That name didn’t sound related to Mbappé at all.

As if sensing Gaël’s confusion, Mbappé said, “We’re not blood relatives, but we’re family. He’s Uncle Jean Kembo’s child. Uncle Jean Kembo was also a great footballer; he helped Zaire win the Africa Cup of Nations twice and even scored the goal that helped Zaire qualify for the World Cup.

He and my dad are good friends, but because Zaire was very chaotic at the time, Uncle Kembo entrusted Jirès to us, asking us to take him out of that chaotic country.

Even though we’re not blood relatives, Jirès, Ethan, and I have always lived together. We’re like real brothers.”

Mbappé recounted the past in one breath, leaving Gaël wide-eyed. So there was such a story.

He knew about Zaire, which later became the Democratic Republic of Congo. As for its relationship with Congo (Kinshasa) and the Republic of Congo, to be honest, Gaël had never quite figured it out.

That part of Africa was so chaotic that he had no desire to learn more about it.

After understanding the reason, Gaël patted Mbappé’s shoulder and said, “I’ll definitely be playing. You don’t need to buy tickets. I’ll get you some front-row tickets later, but you’ll probably have to sit with the Bastia fans.”

Mbappé smiled. “No problem! We’re just Jirès’ fans, not Rennes fans.”

Gaël heard that, took out a pen and paper from his backpack, wrote down a phone number, and handed it to Mbappé. “This is my private number. Only you can know it, okay?”

“Okay!”

Gaël glanced at the time and said apologetically, “I really have to go now. I don’t want to be late on the first day.”

“Go quickly!” Mbappé carefully put away the slip of paper with Gaël’s phone number.

Momège watched Mbappé and Gaël talk, never getting a chance to interject.

After Gaël left, he finally had the opportunity to speak and asked Mbappé, “You were just waiting for him?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, you never told me you knew him. I’ve seen him in the Clairefontaine newspaper. He used to be at Clairefontaine, then he went to…”

Mbappé and Momège walked away, chatting and laughing.

Gaël wasn’t late.

He arrived at the training ground more than ten minutes early. Pierre, who was with him, went to hand over some matters to the U 21 coaches.

“Welcome.”

U 21 head coach Erick Mombaerts actively extended his hand and shook Gaël’s hand. Then he patted his shoulder and put an arm around him, leading him to the others. “Hey, let me introduce you to a new teammate, Yann Gaël. I believe if you follow the Coupe de France, you’ll know that he led a Ligue 2 team to defeat last season’s double winner, Lille.”

Gaël was a bit reserved in his new team.

Then came the routine, self-introduction.

In fact, most of his teammates played abroad and weren’t very familiar with Gaël, nor were they interested in getting to know him for now.

Perhaps they would only be willing to learn more about him once they actually played together.

After a brief self-introduction, Gaël found a random spot and waited for Mombaerts’ next move.

Before coming, Gaël had already learned about the U 21 head coach.

His coaching career began at Paris Saint-Germain, a typical example of a coaching career far more distinguished than his playing days.

Starting in the late 1980s, he successively became the first-team coach for Paris Saint-Germain, Guingamp, Cannes, and Toulouse.

After leaving Toulouse in 2006, he decided to focus on developing talent for the French national team.

So he started coaching the U 16 and U 19 teams. Two years later, he officially took over the U 21 team and has been there ever since.

He was a very good coach.

Very patient.

And he certainly knew his stuff.

As Gaël was resting in a random spot, a player significantly taller than him suddenly walked over.

“Gaël, hello, I’m Raphaël.” The other person showed a wide, friendly smile.

Raphaël Varane.

Gaël naturally knew this “top student.” He had already joined Real Madrid at a young age, with a truly limitless future.

“Hello.” Gaël didn’t know Varane’s intention in approaching him. Was it just a simple greeting?

Fortunately, Varane didn’t make him guess for long and directly stated his purpose: “Zinedine told me to interact with you more when I returned to the U 21 team this time. He said we might be teammates in the future. Not just club teammates, but also national team teammates.”

“Well, I’d be very willing to join Real Madrid, but Real Madrid wouldn’t want a player like me. Real Madrid wants the best players, and I’m not there yet.”

“No, I believe Zinedine.”

As the two exchanged a few somewhat awkward words, Mombaerts spoke.

“Everyone, for today, we’ll just rest at the base. Formal training will begin tomorrow. After two days of training, we’ll go to London to play a friendly match against England U 21. Today, everyone should look at some information about them, so you have an idea. Perhaps some of them are even your club teammates. If you have any questions about the information prepared by the coaching staff, feel free to approach me or any assistant coach with your thoughts.”

Then, the assistant coach handed out stacks of A 4 paper to everyone.

On them were the key players of England U 21, including their names, clubs, positions, playing styles, and so on.

There was even a headshot.

Gaël flipped through them casually, sighing inwardly, “So many young, familiar faces.”