Kylian Mbappe's PSG, whose squad costs over $1 billion, thrashed sixth-tier side Pays De Cassel 7-0, with the French striker scoring five of his team's seven goals. It was a completely dominant performance by Mbappe, who also became the first PSG player to score five goals in a single match.
The five goals that the 2018 World Cup winner scored included a 12-minute hat-trick, coming against a side of amateur players with a pastry chef, a plumber and a banker, among others.
The club, Pays De Cassel belongs to the Flanders countryside, half an hour inside the port of Dunkirk in the far north of France.
The team is captained by a big fan of their opponents on the night: 34-year-old electrician Alexis Zmijak. The right-back by football trade, Zmijak also attends PSG's home games as part of their Ultras group. He is joined by midfielder Clément Boudjema, who is also a keen PSG fan.
Such is the love for the club that Zmijak was hesitant to even tackle the talismanic Mbappe, given that he is set to face Bayern Munich in their upcoming Round of 16 matches in the Champions League match in February.
“If Mbappe goes on goal, do I tackle him or not? Do I say to myself: wait, he must play Bayern in the UCL soon?” Zmijak said in an interview with Le Parisien.
“It’s a strange feeling to be fighting on the field now against the players I watched from the stands and cheered on. I couldn’t have imagined it. We lost our minds when the draw was made,” he added.
Boudjema himself is a big fan of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe. He told L’Equipe that keeping their footballing emotions in check was a big ask for him and his team. “Finding yourself as a player who is going up against them is unimaginable. We will play hard without trying to hurt anyone. We will try to ignore the context. This management of emotions will be a novelty for me,” the midfielder said.
“I have admiration and respect for players like Mbappe and Messi. We are not butchers. We also know how to handle ourselves.”
A look at the professions of some of Mbappe and Messi's opponents:
Alexis Zmijak: Electrician
Romain Samson: Pastry chef
Lucas Thoor: Plumber.
Dimitri Santrain: Banker.
Baptiste Leclerc: Sells mustard.
Kiba Sane: DJ and social media influencer.
Hugo Dubreucq: Engineering student
