India, May 29 -- On May 25 last year, Kylian Mbappe played his last match for Paris St-Germain (PSG), a 2-1 win against Lyon in the French Cup final which completed a domestic double. Then, the world's most feared attacker had left taking with him all that directness, speed, strength, to say nothing of the 44 goals and 10 assists in 48 matches. Ahead of Saturday's Champions League final, it can be said the departure was a blessing in disguise for PSG.

Luis Enrique had seen it coming. In February 2024, when news broke that Mbappe would finally be joining Real Madrid over a decade after Zinedine Zidane had given him a guided tour of the club, the PSG manager had said: "If everything goes well I'm convinced we'll have a much better team tha...