“My brother,” is how Kylian Mbappe referred to Achraf Hakimi in one of his latest Instagram stories according to Diario AS. It’s a picture of the pair celebrating Paris Saint-Germain’s latest victory, 4-2 against Racing Strasbourg this past Saturday, in the dressing room after the game. The pair have also been pictured chilling together in an ice bath recovering after the game.
The pair evidently have great chemistry both on and off the pitch, despite the fact Hakimi has just arrived in Paris this summer from Inter. Mbappe speaks fluent Spanish, and has been important in aiding Hakimi’s adaptation to the PSG dressing room. The Madrid press have also wondered what their friendship could mean for Mbappe’s future; Hakimi, after all, came through Real Madrid’s youth system and only left the club for Italy last summer.
Another teammate of Mbappe’s with close links to the Santiago Bernabeu, of course, is Karim Benzema, his strike partner with the French national team. The pair even went on holiday together to Mykonos after their Euro 2020 campaign came to an inglorious end in a penalty shootout against Switzerland. Regardless of these so-called double agents with differing motives, the final decision will be Mbappe’s himself. All signs at the moment point to the French marksman seeing out the final year of his contract at the Parc des Princes before leaving as a free agent in 2022.
