Originally published 2018-08-04.
After France won the 2018 World Cup, Kylian Mbappé gave his tournament earnings to Premiers de Cordée, a French charity that brings free sport to children in hospital and children with disabilities. He was 19, had scored four goals including one in the final, and had already been handing his France match fees to the same charity for about a year. Here is what he gave, who received it, and why the gesture stood out.
What Mbappé donated
Two kinds of money are involved, and reports sometimes blurred them.
- Match fees. French internationals are paid a fee for each game they play for the national team. L'Équipe reported before the tournament that Mbappé had been passing these fees to Premiers de Cordée since 2017, reportedly about £17,000 a game.
- The World Cup bonus. Each French player was in line for a large bonus from the federation for winning the trophy. The amount widely reported in English-language media was about £265,000, or roughly $350,000, though exact figures varied by outlet and currency.
Mbappé made the pledge before the final, and news of it spread widely after France beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow on 15 July 2018. He explained the decision plainly when asked later, saying he did not want to be paid to represent his country: "I earn enough money, a lot of money."
Premiers de Cordée: the charity behind the gift
Premiers de Cordée is an association based in Montreuil, just east of Paris. Its core programme, Sport à l'hôpital, sends coaches into children's hospitals to run free sports sessions for young patients, many of them with long-term illnesses or disabilities. It also organises an annual sport-in-hospital week, open days that bring thousands of children and their families to stadiums and sports venues, and disability-awareness sessions for schools, companies and local councils, which help fund the hospital work.
The name means "first on the rope", the lead climber in a roped team, a fitting image for an organisation that tries to pull children forward through sport.
Mbappé's link with the group was personal rather than a one-off publicity move. He visited sessions, including a surprise appearance at a football session for children at the Raymond Poincaré hospital in Garches. The charity's general manager, Sébastien Ruffin, told Le Parisien: "When his schedule allows it, he intervenes for us with pleasure."
Mbappé's 2018 World Cup
The donation drew attention partly because the player making it had just had one of the great breakthrough tournaments. Born in Paris on 20 December 1998 and raised in the suburb of Bondy, Mbappé went to Russia as a teenager playing for Paris Saint-Germain.
- He scored against Peru in the group stage, becoming France's youngest goalscorer at a World Cup at the time.
- He scored twice in the 4-3 round-of-16 win over Argentina, the first teenager to score two in a World Cup match since Pelé in 1958.
- He scored France's fourth goal in the final, joining Pelé as the only teenagers to score in a World Cup final.
- He was named the tournament's Best Young Player.
His father, Wilfrid Mbappé, a football coach, is originally from Cameroon, and his mother, Fayza Lamari, a former handball player, is of Algerian Kabyle origin. Both played a large part in his early sporting life in Bondy.
Not the only footballers giving back
The coverage of Mbappé's gift also drew attention to other players. England's national team, for example, has given its match fees to the England Footballers Foundation since 2007, a practice that had raised more than £5 million for causes including children's and military charities by 2018, according to the foundation's statements reported by Global Citizen.
Collective schemes like this matter because they last beyond a single headline. A player's one-time donation can fund a lot of hospital sessions, but a steady commitment, like Mbappé's match fees, lets a small charity plan coaches and programmes from one season to the next.
Why sport in hospital matters
For a child spending weeks or months on a ward, a sports session is not a luxury. Paediatric teams and charities working in this area report that regular movement and play can help children stay active during treatment, ease boredom and anxiety, and give them a sense of normal childhood in an abnormal setting. For children with disabilities, adapted sport builds confidence and can open the door to clubs outside hospital.
The details of what is safe for any particular child are a medical question, which is why programmes like Premiers de Cordée work alongside hospital staff. Parents who want to know what activity suits their own child should talk to a doctor.
What the gesture says
Mbappé has gone on to captain France, win the Golden Boot at the 2022 World Cup with a hat-trick in the final, and join Real Madrid in 2024. The 2018 donation remains one of the most quoted examples of a young star using a moment of triumph to help others.
The useful lesson is not the size of the cheque. It is that he chose a cause he already knew, kept supporting it, and turned up in person. For anyone thinking about giving, that is a sound model: pick an organisation whose work you understand, give regularly if you can, and stay involved.
Sources: Global Citizen: Mbappé donates World Cup earnings (16 July 2018); Premiers de Cordée official site; Wikipedia: Kylian Mbappé; Sports Illustrated: Mbappé wins Best Young Player award.
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