Mbappe reminds PSG of the quality they let go: Moment of the Weekend

Arms crossed, tucked into his body, a statuesque pause to allow the photographers to do their thing. A celebration that has come to define a generation.

Kylian Mbappe had done this for PSG very often, given his record 256 goals for the club... except this time he was sat in the stands, cheering for a goal scored against PSG. The celebration? It still belonged to an Mbappe, but this was the younger brother - Ethan, celebrating his late equalizer for Lille against PSG.

The celebration itself had a slightly less confident air, not the self-assured swagger of the elder Mbappe, but as the images were being beamed to screens the world over, perhaps viewers were unaware that they were witnessing the original version. The pose was Ethan's idea, when playing FIFA 17 with his brother, and Kylian adopted it in his breakout season with AS Monaco. It came to be featured many a time in a PSG, France and Real Madrid shirt, with kids the world over doing their best imitation.

Ethan's rendition for Lille this past weekend meanwhile, was close to never even occurring. The younger Mbappe, once of the house of PSG, was reluctant to celebrate against his former club, his boyhood club, even initially holding his arms up in apology. Yet as Kylian went wild in the stands, Ethan was emboldened, perhaps remembering how his exit from PSG was acrimonious, and then performed that trademark Mbappe celebration.

It was a goal worthy of his surname as well.

Ethan Mbappé. Cold. �� pic.twitter.com/BKww0sc4hB

- Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) October 5, 2025

When Ethan came on in Lille had fallen 0-1 behind courtesy a stunning Nuno Mendes free kick, despite having created plenty of trouble for PSG throughout the game.

Four minutes later, as the clock ticked over to the eighty-fifth minute, Achraf Hakimi fired a pass to Kang-in Lee in midfield, but the South Korean was unable to control the ball. Felix Correia pounced, swiftly moving the ball along to Hamza Igamane in a central position as Lille began their transition. Igamane drove forward, drawing a couple of PSG defenders near, before releasing it to Mbappe on the edge of the box in the right-hand channel.

The younger Mbappe then did what the elder's done countless times before. A faux heavy touch, drawing the defender in (in this case Mendes), before a swift shift of the hips and a half-touch with his boot removed Mendes from the equation. Ethan had his yard of space... and what Kylian does with his right, Ethan can do with his left.

He hit a lovely, curling driven shot, just evading Mendes' despairing sliding block, bouncing past PSG defenders and goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier (once of Lille), before nestling into the bottom corner. The Stade Pierre Mauroy erupted, once raining curses on the elder Mbappe, now hailing the younger as their own hero.

Ethan wheeled away, clasping his hands in apology, that initial reluctance giving way -- after all, he had every reason to twist the knife in. The summer of Kylian's exit from PSG to Real Madrid saw the French giants lose two Mbappes, not one. Ethan had come through the ranks and made his debut for the club, aged 16, and was very much a part of the future of the club. A new contract was being negotiated for him, but the offer was withdrawn when Kylian informed the club that he'd be joining Real Madrid.

According to L'Equipe, Ethan was left in tears in the dressing room after being left out of PSG's matchday squad in the final game of the season, apparently on the orders of chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi.

As Mbappe later revealed in an interview with Canal+, "It's the thing that affected me the most. He (Ethan), he didn't ask for anything. His Real Madrid was PSG. What Real meant to me, his childhood dream was PSG. At one point, I even told him: 'If you want me to, I'll extend [my contract] and you can stay, we'll stay here.' I would have given up my dream of Madrid and stayed for him."

"Ethan told me... 'I don't want to stay here. What they did to you, what they did to me, it's not normal.' If he had told me: 'Kylian, it's what I want.' I would have given up my dream of Madrid and stayed for him."

As things turned out, Kylian is breaking scoring records with Real Madrid, and Ethan is gradually working his way out of his elder brother's shadow - one statuesque celebration at a time - arms crossed, tucked into his body, and for that he takes our Moment of the Weekend. Les Freres Mbappe. Magnifique.