Reported Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool target Eduardo Camavinga has been likened to Kylian Mbappe by Rennes president Nicolas Holveck, who tells FootMercato that he is desperate to keep hold of the £36 million-rated wonderkid.
While there are not too many stylistic similarities that can be made between a tigerish teenage midfielder and a prolific forward with supersonic speed, they do at least have one thing in common.
Like Mbappe, who exploded onto the scene with Monaco as a fresh-faced wonderkid, Camavinga is already one of the most influential footballers in Ligue 1 despite the fact that he won’t even turn 18 until November.
The talismanic presence at the heart of Rennes’ engine room, a player with this sort of ability and attitude comes around perhaps once or twice in a generation.
No wonder, then, that Camavinga is already courting interest from Europe’s biggest clubs.
Sport claimed in March that Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho are going head-to-head for a player Zinedine Zidane believes could be Real Madrid’s new Claude Makelele (Marca).
But that does not mean Rennes will let their star man go without a fight.
“Given the economic context, I’m not sure that there will be a lot of major signings,” president Holveck says. “We want him to stay with us next season, that’s our ambition.
“Eduardo is very close to (coach) Julien (Stephan) and his staff. He is still very young, he is a very thoughtful boy, with incredible maturity.
“He reminds me of a young man I had the chance to know in Monaco,” Holveck adds, referring to a certain PSG superstar who fired the Principality club to the Ligue 1 title in 2017.
Just to add to the growing intrigue surrounding Camavinga, no one in Ligue 1 can match his tally of 4.2 tackles per game in the French top flight.
The teen sensation also boasts an 88 per cent pass completion rate and, back in August, stunned PSG with a glorious assist to set up a 2-1 triumph over the Parisian giants.
Like a young(er) Mbappe, Camavinga is deciding games at the top level well before he has even reached adulthood.
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