Mbappe's admiration for his 'idol' Ronaldo, whom he could succeed at Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo shared a moment on Sunday evening. The pair were lining up on opposite sides of the UEFA Nations League fixture between France and Portugal, but exchanged words and laughs as they faced off.

Their meeting at the Stade de France wasn't the first time that they had met, though. Back in December 2012, with Real Madrid looking to impress a young Mbappe, he was brought to the club's facilities at Valdebebas. There, he met his idols and even posed for a photo with the Portuguese forward.

Eight years on, Sunday's encounter was a coming together of two of the world's very best players that left memorable photographic evidence and, naturally, sparked a lot of talk about what it could mean.

"Idol," Mbappe wrote on Twitter afterwards, alongside two photos of the exchange he had enjoyed with the Portuguese superstar earlier. This expression of admiration for Cristiano was nothing new or unknown from the Frenchman.

"He is a Real Madrid fan and his idol is Cristiano Ronaldo," Mbappe's father told France Football back in 2016. "He used to spend hours watching videos [of the now-Juventus forward] on the internet."

"My first [idol] was [Zinedine] Zidane," Mbappe confessed in an interview with the Mirror, "for everything he achieved with the national team. Then it was Cristiano Ronaldo. He has won a lot and continues to be a winner even after so much success."

Now, Mbappe could go on to become Cristiano's successor at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. His signing is something that Real Madrid have been working on since he first visited Valdebebas in 2012.

They came close to signing him before he joined Monaco, then closer again when he left for Paris Saint-Germain. With his contract set to expire at the Parc des Princes in 2022, the Bernabeu seems the most likely next destination for Mbappe.