When Kylian Mbappe turns out at the Stade Louis II on Wednesday evening, he will do so under the burden of comparisons to a true great of the beautiful game. Monaco's young striker, a mere 18 years of age, has made 44 professional appearances all told, and yet he is already being likened to one of the most talented footballers France has ever seen. Having scored an excellent off-the-shoulder goal against Manchester City in Monaco's 5-3 defeat at the Etihad last month, Mbappe has turned plenty of heads in England, and there is little doubt that he has the potential to make an excellent career for himself. That said, on the evidence we have at present, it should still be considered fundamentally absurd that some have prematurely labelled him 'the new Thierry Henry'.Mbappe is not the first player to fall foul of this phenomenon, of course. Prior to his arrival on the scene, Anthony Martial was 'the new Thierry Henry', with a particular spike in such comparisons after he scored a sublime solo goal against Liverpool on his debut. It famously took Henry nine games to score his first goal in England, though details like that don't matter when making an arbitrary parallel between a promising youngster with much to prove and a legend of world football who – on the basis of sheer probability – he is highly unlikely to exceed or even emulate. There are considerably fewer columnists comparing Martial to Henry these days, not least because he seems to be struggling at Manchester United and has scored a mediocre seven goals in 28 appearances this campaign.Read more on VICE Sports.
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