Dortmund (Germany) (AFP)

Young meteors with devouring ambition, the new princes of the Champions League are ready to nip superstars: Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland will oppose during the Dortmund-Paris SG clash Tuesday (9:00 p.m.), in a duel of prodigies determined to collect the earliness records.

On the visitor side, a French world champion (21 years old), already with a global aura; on the other, a Norwegian attacker (19) still almost unknown nine months ago, who crushes everything in his path. If their style of play is different, they share as much a sense of innate goal as an impressive maturity off the field.

- Mbappé, supersonic and insatiable goalscorer -

In the already rich career of Mbappé, the Dortmund stadium holds a special place.

Revealed in the face of Europe in 2017 on the lawn of Manchester City, the ex-nugget of Monaco confirmed his immense talent by signing a double in the walls of Borussia a few weeks later. Under the astonished eyes of Thomas Tuchel, the ex-coach of the BVB who has become his coach in Paris, and of an audience that he hopes to once again impress during the round of 16 first leg of the 2020 edition, Tuesday.

Since this promising spring 2017, the Prince of Bondy has conquered the world at the speed of sound: 2nd youngest goalscorer in history in a World Cup final behind "King" Pelé, he has accumulated trophies, notable exception of the C1 and the Ballon d'Or.

In Paris, in the summer of 2017, he became the second most expensive player in history (180 M EUR) behind his teammate Neymar (222 M EUR), then the youngest player to reach the ten goals scored in C1, at 18 years and 350 days.

This season, Mbappé has become the top scorer under the age of 21 in the history of the prestigious European competition ... far ahead of Lionel Messi at the same age (19 goals against 8)!

"KM", who has already crossed the 100 career goal mark, is still far from satisfied. His next goals? "It would be a triple Champions League, Euro, Olympic Games" in 2020, he launched in late January. Chick?

- Haaland, the teenager who ignites the Bundesliga -

Like Mbappé, the Champions League has made him a major attraction: Haaland is the first player under the age of twenty to score, having scored eight goals in the group stage (second best goalscorer behind Robert Lewandowski, 10 goals). in his first five C1 matches.

He also became in September, at 19 years and 58 days, the third youngest author of a hat-trick (against Genk) in the competition. Only the legendary Raul and Wayne Rooney had managed to be earlier!

However, at the start of the season, this powerful Norwegian teenage boy (1.94 m) with a chubby face was just starting to earn his place at RB Salzburg, the Austrian champion.

By recruiting him in January for 20 million euros, Dortmund seems to have already hit the jackpot.

His hat-trick and two doubles for his first three Bundesliga games in January sparked real madness in Germany in a championship that was generally attacking.

"I try to think where I can score a goal, where the ball is going to come from, it's a lot of instinct," he said recently to try to explain his incredible success. "I feel good, from the start I could be myself, that's a good sign. Then the results come by themselves".

"He is one of those guys who are thoroughly training and who go into all duels," roused his teammate Mats Hummels, 2014 world champion.

"I particularly like her approach to work at her age," says Hummels. "I don't think he's going to be intoxicated by all the madness around him, but that he's just going to keep doing his thing."

If Haaland were to miss against Paris, Dortmund has yet another young asset in its workforce: Jadon Sancho, an English international (19 years old) with lightning legs, considered as a "special player" by Neymar. Enough to steal the show from Mbappé?

© 2020 AFP