One to watch: Nathan Mbala - Metz's latest wonderkid

FC Metz are known for their development of young players and, in the form of Nathan Mbala, they look to have another big talent on their hands.

A second precocious forward launched

At the start of the season, it was Stéphane Le Mignan who gave a professional debut to the extremely precocious Brian Madjo. The Luxembourg international, who now plays for England's youth teams, started on the opening day of the Ligue 1 McDonald's season in a derby against Strasbourg, but he wouldn't be a regular thereafter. That didn't prevent Madjo from getting a big-money move to Aston Villa in January, however.

Metz will hope that the latest striker to break into the first team will stick around a little longer. Les Grenats may be up against it in their bid to remain in Ligue 1 McDonald's, but there have certainly been bright sparks in their season; Mbala is one of them.

He wasn't even in the first-team picture at the start of the season. Mbala was born in Switzerland and is the son of Biscotte Mbala, a former DR Congo international. Mbala Jr. joined Metz at the age of just 13 and has since been working his way up the age categories at the club.

⚽ 2 goals in his last 5 matches
👤 First start today
🧒 18 years old

NATHAN MBALA 🇨🇩💎 pic.twitter.com/docS3bR3IX
— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) March 15, 2026

His debut for the first team came back in December and a Coupe de France win over ASC Biesheim. He replaced captain Gautheir Hein on that occasion. The striker was then the benefactor of some of Metz's players going to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). It allowed him to regularly feature in the matchday squad, even if minutes remained limited.

But it is about making an impact with those minutes and there is no doubt that Mbala has done that in 2026. When he came off the bench in mid-February in a 3-1 defeat to Auxerre, he scored a sumptuous, curled goal in injury-time, a goal aesthetic not just because of the falling snow but also for the quality of the strike.

Mbala becomes Metz's third-youngest goalscorer

That goal saw him become the third youngest goalscorer in Metz's history at 17 years, 11 months and 26 days. Only Babacar Gueye and Miralem Pjanic netted their first goals at a younger age.

And he has continued to impress. Accumulatively, he still has less than two games' worth of experience under his belt, but, given his first start, Mbala delivered, dragging his side back into the game against Toulouse with another excellent curled effort. Like his first goal, it would turn out to be a consolation. But it is a goal that marks Mbala's upward trajectory. No player born in 2008 has more Ligue 1 McDonald's goals than Mbala this season, with PSG's Ibrahim Mbaye and Lyon's Rémi Himbert both having only scored once. Mbala is one of the brightest prospects of this new generation and he is beginning to show it.

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