France and Kylian Mbappe have started their Euro 2024 campaign with a 1-0 win over Austria tonight in Dusseldorf.

Les Bleus are tipped as one of the favourites to win a European title next month after being placed in Group D.

Alongside Austria, Mbappe’s side will also take on the Netherlands and Poland, in the race for the knockout stages.

With Mbappe’s club future now cleared up he is fully focused on national team duties in Germany this summer.

However, Mbappe’s long road to Real Madrid could have looked very different, according to an anecdote from Austria head coach Ralf Rangnick.

Rangnick claims he was scouting Mbappe as a 16-year-old, in his time in charge of RB Leipzig, with the teenager impressing at AS Monaco.

As part of his stint at RB Leipzig, Rangnick worked in multiple roles including sporting director and head coach, and it was in the former that he spoke with Mbappe’s family.

“I met several times with his parents. I spoke to them in their house and in the last meeting, his father said ‘Kylian will go there, but only if you are his coach’. which was not the case”, as per quotes carried by Relevo.

Rangnick took charge of the RB Leipzig team at the start of 2015 but the message from AS Monaco was that Mbappe was ‘no longer available’.

The post Austria coach was ‘minutes away’ from signing Kylian Mbappe at RB Leipzig appeared first on Football España.