“In 2015, Fenerbahçe organised a friendly match against Monaco. I knew I would play 70 minutes and, shortly before I was substituted, a very young player came on for Monaco.
His name was Mbappé, and at that time nobody in Europe had really heard of him yet. However, as players, we had heard during our time in Switzerland that Monaco had a special player on the bench for their match against us.
We were playing on a very poor pitch at a local amateur club. He only played for 20 minutes, but in that short time he was incredibly explosive and talented. I decided to watch every single movement he made. He really was something else.
I watched him and said to everyone on the bench: ‘If this kid doesn’t become a world star, I’ll eat the football boots I’m wearing.’”
The rest is history, and two years later PSG paid Monaco €180 million for him.
