The rise of the teenager seems unstoppable, while the Brazilian suddenly finds himself under question after a tough World Cup experience <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When Edinson Cavani tried to claim the rights to a penalty from Neymar against Lyon just a matter of weeks into the Brazilian\u2019s Paris Saint-Germain adventure, it led to a fit of pique from the younger man and an ugly on-field tug-of-war that was to define his first months in the French capital.<\/p>\n
Now Neymar finds himself in the midst of an inadvertent arm wrestle for something greater than just the right to a free shot at goal from 12 yards; his pride is on the line as Kylian Mbappe threatens to usurp him as PSG\u2019s superstar forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Neymar signed for PSG barely a year ago to become the world\u2019s most expensive player with a price tag of \u20ac222 million (\u00a3200m\/$264m), he was going to France to lead the club to the promised land of the Champions League, enhancing his own Ballon d\u2019Or prospects by stepping out of the shadow of Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It seemed impossible he would be overshadowed by some upstart teenager.<\/p>\n
Yet on the eve of the 2018-19 season, he faces the prospect of being pushed away from the spotlight by a young man with only 104 senior club appearances to his name.<\/p>\n
The rise of Mbappe has been a prodigious one, with the 19-year-old this summer completing his inevitable move from Monaco to his hometown side for \u20ac180 million, making him the second most expensive player ever, having spent last season in the capital technically on loan.<\/p>\n
He enjoyed a promising first campaign in Paris, scoring 21 times and laying on 15 more in 46 outings, but it was at World Cup 2018 where his star was to truly ascend.<\/p>\n
Mbappe was the outstanding offensive player of champions France, steaming into the spotlight thanks to a blistering last-16 display against Argentina and becoming the first teenager since Pele to score in the final.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Indeed, more than four months before his 20th birthday, Mbappe has a string of such \u2018firsts\u2019 to his credit and stands poised to take over from Neymar as his club\u2019s leading attraction.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, the Brazilian proved the marketing coup that PSG hoped in his first season at Parc des Princes. Merchandise sales jumped 78 per cent, according to Le Parisien, with Neymar accounting for half the total of shirts sold by the club, twice as many as Mbappe. As such, he has widely been cited as the cause of a surge of interest in the Parisians, particularly in Asia, but a difficult start to 2018 suddenly sees his pre-eminence threatened more locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obvious that Mbappe has got something more than others,\u201d new PSG arrival Gianluigi Buffon said earlier this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Italian should know, after all, it was Mbappe, then of Monaco, who ended his shut-out run of 600 minutes while playing with Juventus in the Champions League two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I spoke with Andrea Barzagli, one of my great friends, after the match, he told me: \u2018Gigi, in 20 years of my career I\u2019ve rarely seen such a fast player, someone who can run with the ball so far. I had a hard time stopping him’,\u201d the 40-year-old continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose words aren\u2019t trivial because Barzagli, when he\u2019s focused and fit, he\u2019s a really great defender.\u201d<\/p>\n
Circumstances have certainly worked against Neymar. A foot injured against Marseille in February robbed him of his opportunity to shine at the business end of the season, though he still finished the campaign with 28 goals \u2013 one for every 96 minutes he was on the field.<\/p>\n
It also meant that he was not properly fit for Brazil\u2019s World Cup campaign, though in Russia, he succeeded only in tarnishing his reputation with a display of playacting the like of which has rarely been seen. In total, he spent 14 minutes rolling around \u2018injured\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n