France’s Kylian Mbappé Donates World Cup Earnings to Kids With Disabilities
The 19-year-old powerhouse is a sports hero and a humanitarian.
One of the most dynamic French footballers playing today is taking his victory money and paying it forward.
Kylian Mbappé, a 19-year-old powerhouse who scored four goals this year as France smashed the World Cup, has announced that he will donate all of his earnings from the tournament to Premiers de Cordée, an organization that provides free sports instruction to hospitalized kids and children with disabilities, and campaigns on disability awareness with schools and businesses, reports USA Today.
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“Kylian, he’s a great person,” Sebastien Ruffin, general manager of Premiers de Cordée, told Le Parisien, a French news outlet. “When his schedule allows it, he intervenes for us with pleasure. He has a very good [relationship] with children, he always finds the right [words] to encourage them. I sometimes even feel that [he] takes more pleasure to play with the kids than the kids themselves.”
Mbappé earned a £265,000 bonus (or roughly $350,000) after defeating Croatia 4-2 in the final Sunday, according to Sports Illustrated.
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And he didn’t have to think long on where to contribute the funds — Mbappé’s been supporting Premiers de Cordée since 2017, donating all his match fees to the charity, as much as £17,000 per game, according to French newspaper L’Equipe.
The athlete, who was born in Paris, is the son of immigrants. His father, Wilfried Mbappé, is from Cameroon and his mother, Fayza Lamari, is originally from Algeria.
Crowned by ESPN as soccer’s “future king,” Mbappé has been followed closely for his actions on the field as well as his charitable gestures off of it during the World Cup.