Veni, vidi, vici! This immortal phrase from one of Julius Caeser’s conquests can best describe the scintillating show by Kylian Mbappé in France’s 4-3 victory over Argentina in Kazan on Saturday night. 

The stage was set for a rejuvenated Albiceleste and their iconic Lionel Messi after their dramatic resurrection against Nigeria in their last group league game. 

But a 19-year-old Mbappé not only stole the show but also showcased la nouvelle vague of French football to the world. 

Soon after the kickoff in Kazan, the much-anticipated second round clash on June 30 (yes that’s the day) witnessed a déjà vu of one of the lightning-fast individual slaloms through the Argentina defense like the then wunderkind Michael Owen did against a sloppy and sloth-paced Argentine defense, exactly 20 years ago – in 1998 – on the same day. 

This time, unlike Owen’s clinical finish on the run, a charging Mbappé was brought down by an outpaced Marcos Rojo as the French striker was almost going for kill from inside the box. 

Antoine Griezmann didn’t miss too many penalties and his shot past Argentine goal-keeper Franco Armani clinched a morale-boosting lead for Didier Deschamps side. 

The 13th minute strike may have raised an alarm for those French fans superstitiously having triskaidekaphobia, when Mbappé’s Paris Saint-Germain teammate-turned-rival in the World Cup, Angel di Maria and his compatriot Gabriel Mercado scored in quick succession to snatch the lead from their European rivals. 

But Benjamin Pavard's spectacular strike not only leveled the scores, but also paved the way for a French boy wonder’s coming of age with a spectacular arrival to the big stage. 

As they say, cometh the hour, cometh the man. Mbappé did make full use of the blank canvas laid out for one of the greatest artists of modern football. Like a group of young artists, spearheaded by a certain Claude Monet changed the Renaissance-influenced French art by replacing its age-old historical subjects, religious themes and portraits, a bustling Mbappé’s brace within a span of less than five minutes seemed to have painted a new tapestry of the future of world football. 

If the French No.10’s first goal was a chef d'œuvre, his second goal was a coup de foudre. The only time and the last time the World Cup has seen two goals being scored by a teenager was sixty years ago when a 17-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento, who became world famous by the name of Pelé, netted a brace in the 1958 World Cup final against Sweden. 

“I'm very happy, it's flattering to be the second (teenage) player (to achieve this) after Pelé but let's put things into context, Pelé is in another category but it's good to be among such names to have achieved this in the knockout matches,” were the bons mots, uttered by Mbappé after his player of the match-winning performance and the record-equaling feat. 

From a trivia perspective, Pelé was wearing the jersey No.10 for the first time in his life in that World Cup as a lackadaisical Brazilian football federation failed to send the shirt numbers of players in time and the FIFA had to randomly select the numbers for the Selecao with a young Pelé, by sheer luck, getting the number that later became a divine number, courtesy his superlative performance in the days to come.  

A number that was made famous by the Brazilian legend, immortalized by Diego Maradona and many more football maestros, was once donned by a certain Zinedine Zidane, who not only played for Mbappé’s country but also helped their avant garde rainbow team to win their maiden World Cup title, a few months before Mbappé was born. His current national team coach Deschamps was the victorious captain at Stade de France on that eventful night when an Algerian-origin Zidane was conjuring up a coup de grâce for Les Bleus against the Brazilians. 

Since that epic triumph and the subsequent Euro title glory, France have faced one after another debacle in world football for years before the start of their recent la nouvelle vague which has swept the Russian shore in this ongoing World Cup with Mbappé being the fulcrum. It was a coup de maître by Deschamps to choose the inexperienced teenager over an experienced Karim Benzema and a talented Anthony Martial in his World Cup squad and subsequently, make him the striking spearhead. He has more than justified that with his virtuoso performance to play the farewell tune for Messi. C'est la vie!