Kylian Mbappe’s mother, Fayza Lamari, is one of the sport’s most powerful women thanks to her no-nonsense attitude. Here's how she became a feared dealmaker.
If she was unsure about the PSG transfer when he was 18, she was positively convinced he should move by the time he had run his contract down to its final months last season.
and his transfer to PSG , I gained 24kg. At the beginning, it is very difficult because you are not prepared for that.”Lamari and her then-husband had previously been on a journey with their adopted son Jires Kembo Ekoko, now 35 and retired after playing for Stade Rennais and clubs in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey. It had made them wise to some of the pitfalls of the football industry.
So instead Mbappe and his family went with Verheyden, who said she had no interest in football and would charge them at her hourly rate. “It was important to have someone who could advise us without being drawn to the money,” she said. “I told Kylian to meet her and he approved. I told him to see the good side of things — that if he became the champion he was to become, two women would take care of him in addition to his dad. It was a snub to the male world that is football.
But negotiations with PSG continued throughout. Much of the time, even when strained, they were civil. It has emerged that the letter Mbappe sent PSG last week, rejecting the option of a further year at the club, was dated July 15 last year — just less than two months after he signed his new deal and was paraded at the Parc des Princes wearing a shirt with “Mbappe 2025” on the back.
But, once more, Boga wonders whether this approach would backfire if we were talking about anything but an elite-level talent. When you are representing someone on the level of Mbappe, he says, the usual rules of engagement don’t apply. He also explained how his mother buys his clothes for him. “We have the same tastes,” he said. “She takes pictures and sends them to me. But often she buys without asking me — and she’s not mistaken. We have a real bond for that, too.”
“His relationship with money is unique. He never has a credit card or money on him. Sometimes I say to him, ‘Don’t you want to take €200 with you?’ He replies, ‘No need. I’m just going to play football.’ He’s not a big spender.” In that Tribune de Geneve interview, she stated, “His life as a man is more important than his life as a footballer. He has this ability to give people pleasure, to create emotions. My greatest pride will be what he will build as a man.”
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