Arsenal supporters are excited at the prospect of William Saliba linking up with Mikel Arteta’s first team squad - yet how many are aware of the link between Kylian Mbappe and Saliba? Or Mbappe's father Wilfried in particular.  

Arsenal signed the talented defender last summer for £27million in a deal which saw Saliba loaned straight back to his former club, Saint-Etienne.

Saliba cannot represent the Gunners if the 2019/20 season does resume, due to the fact FIFA have advised clubs to extend loan spells to reflect the new finish date of the campaign. Even if Saliba falls into that category having been on loan with Les Verts for the last year – excitement is rising at his imminent arrival in north London. 

The youngster is set to become a household name across Europe following the transfer - a far cry from his humble beginnings on the outskirts of Paris.

But how much do you know about his humble beginnings in France, and his association with Mbappe’s father?

Read Layth Yousif’s feature piece below to find out…

Bondy - where William Saliba and Kylian Mbappe hail from -  is an unprepossessing working class suburb situated to the north east of Paris. It forms part of a concrete sprawl of satellite towns on the outskirts of Paris.

While Bondy may only be a few miles from central Paris on the RER line it is a world away

Saliba and Mbappe's hometown is part of the chain of banlieues- literally doughnut - that are an outer ring of locales circling a far richer centre. They are branded by well-heeled outsiders full of social prejudice as no-go areas.

The truth lies far from the stigma - for while the banlieuesface urban deprivation and cuts in government funding for vital services including schools and play areas, such places are vibrant, melting pots where excellence in sport and urban art are seen not only as forms of self-expression but of a way out.

Eight of Didier Deschamps' 2018 World Cup winning squad hailed from the banlieues that circle the French capital.

There is a physical border - the periphique, the notorious ring road around Paris. Inside are the arrondisments, boulevards, designer shops and tourist attractions. Outside are those society is said to have left behind.

During the Middle Ages Bondy was mostly forest. Fast forward five hundred years, the area still has its fair share of humble open spaces where football is played - and where stars of the future are forged.

The boy from Bondy's banliues: A few miles from the posh arrondisments of Paris but its crumbling tower blocks are a world away  

Mbappe started his career at AS Bondy, coached by his father Wilfried.

He was in a group that would have  been two years older than Saliba - but light years away in terms of development as he soon moved on to Clairefontaine as a youngster.

It was at the French football academy where Mbappe attracted the attention of the continent's big clubs before he settled on Monaco - prior to joining PSG on loan in August 2017 with the fee for a permanent deal set at around 145m Euros.

Saliba coached by Mbappe's dad 

While Mbappe was progressing through the ranks of youth, then professional football, a young Saliba was being coached by none other than Kylian's dad, Wilfried.

Saliba was six years old when Wilfried first came across him near to the tower blocks and crumbling concrete - fertile breeding grounds for footballing talent.

Wilfried was one of 30,000 registered coaches for more than 200,000 grassroots footballers in the Paris banliues.

A tough working-class environment

Saliba caught Wilfried's eye with an athleticism and talent full of skill and natural ability allied with a toughness that growing up in such a place demands.

Uneven dirt fields were as much part of the environment as street football and competitive games on astroturf. Unforgiving places to hone touch, technique and temperament.

Saliba played for AS Bondy's youth teams between 2008 and 2014 before signing for FC Montfermeil before appearing on the radar of Les Verts.

With Saliba's imminent signing to the Premier League aristocrats of Arsenal he joins a long line of boys from the banlieus - Manchester United's Paul Pogba from Lagny-Sur-Marne and Roissy-en-Brie, Chelsea's N’Golo Kanté from Suresnes, Juventus' Blaise Matuidi in Fontenay-sous-Bois and Manchester City's Benjamin Mendy in making their mark in football.

While they have all traded in poor beginnings for the trappings of money and fame at the top level of the beautiful game - they are still considered 'authentic' heroes and have come to represent those they left behind.

With his forthcoming move to Arsenal from the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard Saliba is yet another player who can join that litany of names - as well as a role model for Bondy's and the youth of the banliues.

Parts of Layth's article first appeared at Football London