Paris Saint-Germain and French national football team star striker Kylian Mbappé was given a standing ovation by hundreds of fans on Thursday upon his arrival in Cameroon for a charity visit and a detour to the his father’s village. A group of around 400 people, many wearing PSG jerseys, were screaming his name when he appeared at the exit of Yaoundé airport, the capital, an AFP journalist noted. Mbappé greeted a hundred traditional dancers who were performing on his arrival, an event supervised by a hundred police and gendarmes.
He will stay during his visit for a few days in a hotel complex belonging to the family of former tennis player Yannick Noah, the last French winner of the Roland-Garros tournament in 1983, who has taken up residence in Yaoundé and is one of the organizers of the Mbappé tour.
All smiles, the world football star greeted the crowd kept at a distance by the police, then quickly rushed into an SUV with tinted windows which took the direction of Yaoundé. A program, of which AFP obtained a copy, provides for him to visit the school for deaf and hard of hearing children of the Foundation for the Education and Promotion of Hearing Impaired People (FEPPDA) in Yaoundé on Friday morning, then participates in a “Mbappé vs Joakim basketball match”, no doubt Joakim Noah, son of Yannick and former NBA player.
On Friday afternoon, he will take part in a football match against FC Vent d’Etoudi, a Cameroonian D2 club chaired by Yannick Noah. He will go to Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, on Saturday, where he must visit a school then will go to Djebalé, the village of his father Wilfrid Mbappé, born in Douala but who left Cameroon very early for France.
“It is an opportunity for him to visit in Yaoundé and Douala the two schools rehabilitated by his association Inspired By KM (IBKM), to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors in Djebalé, to spend time with young Cameroonians” , detailed his entourage in Paris in a press release sent to AFP. “It is a pride as a Cameroonian because he is a Cameroonian of origin, but it is also an honor to be able to see the best player in the world”, enthused at the airport Arsène Pinlap, 37, president of the PSG fan club in Yaoundé, who came as a delegation.
“We are proud to see our Cameroonian brother. We want to give him a very warm welcome,” added Vannel Kunde, a 16-year-old high school student. “It is an immense joy for us children who love football” to welcome Kylian Mbappé to our country, strangled Armelle Ntsama, an 18-year-old high school student.
The French star will also meet “certain authorities in the country”, including Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, to “discuss all the projects he wishes to put in place in Cameroon”, according to the press release from the Parisian striker’s entourage. .
This trip to Cameroon comes as relations between the star and PSG have been going through a complicated phase for several weeks. Mbappé extended in May 2022 at PSG for two seasons, until May 2024 therefore, plus an additional one, until 2025, an option which he is free to activate by July 31. The star striker has indicated his wish not to. The club’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, stepped up the pressure by declaring on Wednesday that the 24-year-old international striker could not “leave for free” and that the alternative, in the eyes of PSG, was clear: either he extends, or “the door is open” for a transfer.
