At PSG, it's the real bromance between Mbappé and Neymar

• In a match and not only, the two stars of PSG appear very close.
• Paris warming up, messages on social networks ... While they could have been rivals, the French and the Brazilian have instead chosen to be accomplices.
• An asset for the capital club. And it is the former Parisian Valdo who says it: "Me, if I am an opposing defender, I do not sleep the day before if I know that the next day, there is Neymar and Mbappé opposite"

Memories of good valves like Twitter its (will) it sometimes make them, in time. After a first season playing together in Paris, in the summer of 2018, Mbappé returned from Russia with a world champion title and a new status. Just enough to make fun of a player who left Spain to come out of Messi's shadow to finally find himself in that of the new French football superstar.

It's funny, but far from true. The sequel proved that PSG cannot shine in Europe without Neymar, and that he was the boss of the Parisian attack all season until the Champions League final on Sunday against Bayern. Above all, it has shown that if Neymar was undoubtedly looking a few years ago to emancipate himself from Messi, he has developed with Mbappé a relationship that goes beyond friendship.

The French described it as “fusional” a few months ago. Asked to say more after the victory in the half, Mbappé launched: “Already, we are roughly in the same age group, we share the same delusions outside. We manage to laugh together, to say things frankly. We appreciate each other, the current is passed immediately ”.

Spontaneous

Neymar and Mbappé when they arrive together at the Park disguised as in Casa de Papel, Neymar and Mbappé when they send birthdays messages full of love, Neymar and Mbappé when they spray their social networks with complicit photos. Close to the players for several days in Lisbon, the former Parisian midfielder Valdo also noticed that: "They are still together, they both like to joke".

happy birthday my brother 🔥🤟🏽 @KMbappe pic.twitter.com/BJl8CpmUbn

We could evoke the thesis of the com plan 'cleverly orchestrated by their entourage and PSG, the two stars best friends on the bus shelters but in fact rivals in the locker room, as the rumors of the summer of 2018 could suggest. But everything between them seems too spontaneous to support it. As when they film themselves together, a little off the hook in the middle of a Lisbon afternoon, to send a nice message to Loïck, a young Parisian supporter suffering from cancer.

A little more than a year after his title of world champion, Mbappé also returned in an interview with France Foot on everything that was said at the time:

“When I arrived in Paris, there was no debate. He was the superstar, whom I had come to support, to help. He gets injured, misses his World Cup and I win it. And there, stories begin to emerge about our alleged rivalry, about my desire to take his place. I was shocked to hear all of this. When I returned to Camp des Loges in August 2018, the first thing I did was go and grab “Ney” to say: “You may have missed your World Cup… And so much the better for we. But, here, don't worry, I won't walk on your flower beds […] I assure you that I don't want to take your place, you can keep it. I am always here to help you. "

Isabela Pagliari, journalist at Esporte Interativo and close to the “Ney”, evokes this human relationship with Mbappé, which is probably not for nothing in the comfort found by the Brazilian in Paris.

“They know that both have their part to play and that together they play better. They know they need each other. They love and respect each other a lot. They are really friends, they go out together in Paris. They go to restaurants, to small parties together. They have a lot of interests in common. Mbappé told me one day that they spoke English among themselves. "

It was during an interview last January, in which Mbappé had not failed to room his friend. “We speak English but I speak better than him, I want to tell everyone (laughs). He has improved, he now understands a little French when the coach speaks or certain players speak. We managed to develop that. It's much easier to talk now both of you ”.

😂 QUE RESENHA! Será que o Mbappé fala inglês melhor que o Neymar? Confere o que ele falou com exclusividade para a @isabelapagliari, do Esporte Interativo, sober isso e sobre a relação com o brasileiro! pic.twitter.com/oueZXdoM2F

It is in this same interview that he evoked their “fusional” relationship and said that before the matches, the two bet on who will score the most goals in the warm-up. Thanks for the transition Kylian, let's talk balloon now. Because if the technical relationship between the two men has always been obvious, ("we both speak the same football language", says Mbappé), it has not always served PSG.

The two stars have sometimes given the impression of playing only for their personal stats or, very paradoxically, to seek only each other on the ground.

Their coach Thomas Tuchel, in a pre-match press conference at the beginning of winter, told this little anecdote. “When you work on the positional game, they always work together, in every possession game or every practice game. It creates automatisms, they like to play together, they have typical movements that go well together, they find spaces very fluidly between them ”.

Neymar and Mbappé make love after the crazy scenario against Atalanta. - David Ramos / AP / SIPA

Too gifted, too close, the two men were able to forget the balance of the team. Mbappé admitted almost half-heartedly after Leipzig: “We have improved in our relationship with others. We're less focused on both of us. We were able to create a context where we care about others a lot more, because we understood that it is with others that we will succeed in winning, and not between the two of us. "

Since then, Angel Di Maria has deserved the talent that we speak more of a trio than a duo in what looks like the best attack in the world. More mature, more serene too, Neymar and Mbappé now know that they can blow up any defense with a deep pass. And that at worst, the fear of the two players at 200 million will make space in the opposing defense for the Argentine.

"If I am an opposing defender, I won't sleep the day before"

The former Parisian coach Alain Giresse summed up in the Parisian the technical relationship between the two men with a beautiful metaphor. “It's the bow and the arrow. Mbappé is all that is depth, percussion. And Neymar, who is of course also capable of hitting, gives and distributes the balloons. He will inevitably find a link with Mbappé. Beyond that, I think Neymar appreciates being able to find a player like that to give him some balls and Mbappé to count on someone able to feed him when he claims him with his calls in depth. "

Their games are obviously more complete than that, but Mbappé's speed combined with Neymar's passing precision is "PSG's strong point", admits Tuchel. Mbappé himself theorized in France Foot this link which offered the goal of victory against Bergamo, in the quarter-finals. “For me, he's the best passer in the world. He is able to find you among 6 opponents by going through a very small hole. You should never be a spectator with him. I understood it. You have to always be on the move and not be surprised by your impossible passes. "

So when both are in great shape, nothing can stop them. Kaba Diawara, former Parisian striker: “They understood that they need each other and that it is not by pulling the plug that they would gain something. Neymar has worked well in Brazil casually, we laugh at him and his lifestyle but he does things seriously. And Mbappé, his injury, it allowed him to understand how important he is. I have the impression that there is like a pact between the two: "well now, we win and then we see, either you go, or I go ..." "

We are not there yet, and we will see on Sunday evening whether the best attack in the world can beat the best team in the world. In the meantime, and because we had nothing else to offer you to conclude this article, we leave the floor to Valdo, who makes us the perfect trailer for the final.

“Me, if I am an opposing defender, I will not sleep the day before if I know that the next day, there is Neymar and Mbappé opposite. You saw when Kylian was on the sidelines against Bergamo when he came home, the difference it made. Neymar, Kylian, it's the same as Messi. Do you think the Germans are going to sleep peacefully? They say nothing, but Boateng, there, he is thinking of Messi who makes him fall, poof, like that on the buttocks…. "

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• Kylian Mbappé
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