It is the morning after the night before in the Paris suburb of Les Ulis and the scene is one of frenzied excitement. Inside the clubhouse of the local football club, coach Mamadou Niakaté flicks through the newspapers and switches on the TV, eagerly awaiting his appearance on the major sports channel.

At the entrance, the charming mayor of the district, Francoise Marhuenda, has arrived to congratulate the club on the prestige and attention that they have bestowed on her town.

The reason for all this fuss is Anthony Martial, the 19-year-old French forward who has been catapulted to international fame after completing a move from Monaco to Manchester United. By chance, this week happened to coincide with his first call-up to the French national team and by Friday night, he was celebrating a senior debut as a substitute in the 1-0 win over Portugal.

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Anthony Martial made his international debut for France on Friday night during a friendly against Portugal

The 19-year-old £58million forward applauds the supporters after the game following his France bow

Martial, who signed for Manchester United on transfer deadline day trains with the French squad on Saturday

Martial receives some advice from France coach Didier Deschamps during the session on Saturday

The transfer could cost United £58million and the state of awe and bewilderment in France was captured by a L’Équipe front page that simply declared ‘Plus Cher que Zidane’ or ‘More expensive than Zidane’, referencing how this transfer may eclipse the £46m Real Madrid paid Juventus for the legendary Frenchman in 2001.

‘It’s been some week for him,’ says his Manchester United and France team-mate Morgan Schneiderlin. ‘But he has been amazing. The way he has coped with this, we’ve all been so impressed. He has a smart head on his shoulders. We’ve been chatting a lot and he cannot wait to get started at United.

‘He’s a very good player, he has a big future ahead of him. He has technique, strength and will create space for the team by stretching defences and running in behind. They brought him to add something to our forward line but we need patience. Everyone will talk about his price but I hope the media leave him alone to develop and give him time.’

As Schneiderlin implies, the figures are eye-watering, but at Les Ulis, they are not complaining. They stand to make £450,000 over the next three years as their cut and it will cover running costs for the next four years. The cash will pay for minibuses and new pitches, and fund local development projects.

Martial's new United team-mate Morgan Schneiderlin insists the teenager has a big future but he needs time

Former United left back Patrice Evra took a paternal approach to Martial, inviting him for lunch last Wednesday

Martial stands to net his first club Les Ulis £450,000 in solidarity payments for his formative years of training

Martial (top row, second right) poses with the France squad after earning his first senior call-up

ANTHONY MARTIAL FACTFILE Date of birth: December 5, 1995 (aged 19) Place of birth: Massy, Paris, France Club career: Lyon (2012-13): 3 games, 0 goals Monaco (2013-): 60 games, 13 goals Total: 63 games, 13 goals Advertisement

It is at this complex, among the suburban tower blocks, where it all began for Martial. It also happens to be the place where Thierry Henry and Patrice Evra began their sporting lives and the clubhouse features a host of signed shirts and picture montages of two of English football’s most celebrated French talents.

At France’s training base at Clairefontaine, Evra took a paternal approach to Martial, inviting him for lunch on Wednesday afternoon, encouraging him to take English lessons and preparing him for the move to Old Trafford.

Niakaté, who played with Henry as a child and coached Martial, believes there are great similarities between the pair. ‘Anthony arrived here at the age of six and we could see that he had already surpassed the other kids in terms of his technical skill and speed,’ he says. ‘He shared Thierry’s qualities.

‘He was incredibly determined. As is the case with every great player, he had this real hate of losing, almost a fear. He was a leader on the pitch. Even at six year old, he couldn’t handle losing. It would eat him up, he’d be angry and become isolated. Thierry was the same. He had that exact trait. It is the same behaviour, the same speed, the same quality and the same will to win. They would both be very demanding of themselves and their team-mates, both in training and games.

Martial, pictured as a youngster while in the Lyon youth team, had clearly surpassed other kids his age, according to a coach at his first club Les Ulis

Martial previously posed with Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry (right), who he has been likened to

Martial is treading a similar path to Arsenal legend Henry, who also played for Monaco as a youngster

THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL A YOUTH CLUB Arsenal legend Thierry Henry (circled, left), ex-Manchester United star Patrice Evra and precocious Anthony Martial (right) were all winning trophies with Les Ulis long before their rise to stardom. The club stand to make £450,000 from Martial’s big-money move to Old Trafford. Advertisement

‘If a training session lasted an hour, he would ask for more afterwards. As soon as he left training, he’d then be on the street playing with his mates. He was incredibly precocious, his technical and physical skill was remarkable.’

Martial grew up in an apartment 500 metres from the club, living with his parents, of Martinique origin, and his two older brothers. Dorian, the eldest, still plays for Les Ulis and his dad, Florent, is there on the sidelines every Sunday. The middle child, Johan, is a defender for Troyes.

‘They are a football-mad family and their relationship with this club is special,’ says coach Tshemen Buhanga. ‘Thierry has paid for a pitch here and Patrice donated his World Cup bonus — we know how highly our former players think of us.’

The English interest in Martial is not new. Scouts from ‘major English and European clubs’ have been arriving at Les Ulis since he was 10. When he was 12, Martial was invited for a tour of Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium.

Martial resisted the temptation to leave France but did move to Lyon at the age of 14.

Evra also played for Les Ulis when he was younger and later joined Monaco before moving to Old Trafford

Former Lyon coach Remi Garde took Martial to the club during his time as academy manager

‘We had been tracking him from two years,’ says Lyon’s former academy manager, Remi Garde. ‘My chief scout, Gerard Bonneau, told me: “This kid is unbelievable, we have to get him”.

‘I had a huge amount of trust in his judgment so we went ahead. You are always gambling, but we could see he is technically excellent, he has pace, intelligence, that he could finish well. At Lyon, we have a real culture of attackers: Loic Remy, Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette, Nabil Fekir and the new Tottenham player, Clinton N’Jie.

‘So on the pitch, he ticked every box. Then we made the backgrounds checks, about the family and his character. We called up his school teachers, his headmaster and we spoke at great length to the coaches at Les Ulis.’

He adds: ‘He wasn’t a Hatem Ben Arfa kind of character. Anthony’s parents were not desperate for him to become famous or a star. Karim and Hatem were signed young by Lyon but Martial might have been the youngest player we gave a professional contract.’

Garde recognised his quality, but did not want Martial to become disorientated. Along with Martial’s parents, they formulated a plan of gentle integration. Yet it was not a straightforward path. On three occasions, Garde, the former Arsenal defender, arranged meetings to discuss Martial’s development with his parents.

Martial poses in his new Manchester United shirt after leaving the France camp to complete the deal on transfer deadline day last Tuesday

Martial became the most expensive teenager in history after completing the move to Old Trafford

‘Martial faced problems, like every teenager, after he moved here,’ he says. ‘The big issue was school. I was very demanding. I wasn’t asking him to gain the qualifications to be a lawyer or doctor but when you go to school, you must demonstrate concentration and go in with the right state of mind. He just wasn’t interested and there were times he was rude to teachers.

‘He wasn’t a loud mouth, if anything he could be too quiet in class and just appear uninterested. He didn’t think he needed school, but this is very common among teenagers in academies.

‘With regards to the football, he could be impatient. When he was training with the youth team, he was asking all the time to be with the reserves. His parents and I, though, agreed with one another. Again, this is not unusual for young players today.’

By the age of 16, Martial was training with the first team and Garde had taken over as first-team manager. He made four substitute appearances for Lyon before leaving for Monaco in 2013.

‘He wanted to stay at Lyon,’ says Garde. ‘He was happy. His first game was a Europa League match in Israel, he came with me to train for six months. At the end of June, the club had serious financial problems, they needed €5 m and he was the one with that value. I tried to block it because I knew he would go on to become a star.’

Martial made only three appearances for Lyon before he moved to Monaco two years ago

Martial had impressed only fleetingly during his two years in the south of France

Martial poses with his former Monaco team-mates previously ahead of his £36m move to Manchester United

At Monaco, Martial has impressed fleetingly. He endured a peculiar relationship with Claudio Ranieri and only 16 months ago, the Italian cast doubts over the player’s mind-set.

‘He is a great youngster with a great future but he must change his mentality,’ said Ranieri. ‘Sometimes the French mentality is, “Today I play well, maybe I’ll play well tomorrow”. No, you must work hard to do your best every single day.’

The arrival of Leonardo Jardim as Ranieri’s replacement may have been a relief but he had a set-to with Martial last August. Monaco were 1-0 up at Nantes when Martial was introduced as a substitute on the hour. His performance, however, infuriated Jardim, who substituted Martial before the end of the game. That has been seen as a defining moment in his career and Martial admitted as much earlier this year.

‘That day, Jardim made me understand that nothing is going to be easy and that I must work extremely hard in order to succeed,’ he said.

New Manchester United signing Anthony Martial, right, with family members last year

Martial took this selfie and uploaded it to his Instagram previously during his time with Monaco

The progress has been steady. Martial scored just two goals until March last season and although he ended the campaign with eight in 15 games, you can understand why some observers in France believe United may have taken leave of their senses by committing so much to the deal.

One L’Equipe writer asked: ‘Where is the sense in a transfer market when a 19-year-old boy, without an international cap, with only 11 goals in 52 games in Ligue Un, costs more than Zinedine Zidane?’

A poll in the same newspaper asked if Martial merited the figures involved and 92 per cent of the 75,000-plus who answered responded with ‘No’.

United argue they are investing in potential and have jumped in early to avoid major competition next summer, when Chelsea and PSG were expected to pursue Martial more vigorously. Wolfsburg, Valencia and Tottenham had inquiries knocked back in the last 12 months while Manchester City observed from a distance.

United are understood to be paying £36m, with three significant add-ons. French sources say that Monaco will receive £7.2 m if he scores 25 goals over the next four years, a further £7.2 m if he has 25 caps and £7.2 m if he were to win the Ballon D’Or. Lyon, who inserted a clause into his move to Monaco, will receive 20 per cent and expect to receive £12m in time.

Martial's fee has been met with astonishment in France but Louis van Gaal recognises something in the starlet who was recently called up by his national team

The young forward also posted this picture of himself in his current home town of Monte Carlo

Martial is married to childhood sweetheart Samantha and the couple are expecting their second child

‘The responsibility is now with Manchester United,’ says Garde. ‘As a manager, you have to protect and nurture him. There will be huge noise around him. His parents are good people but he needs to stay grounded.

‘He is married to Samantha and expecting his second child. He seems very young for that but maybe it is better if he goes home every night to be with them instead of being out partying and drinking.

‘He’ll need to adapt to the pace of the game, the physicality, he will need to earn the respect of the dressing room. He will know all this. The biggest pressure is on Louis van Gaal. He has signed a player we all know is extremely gifted and now he has to nurture that the right way.

‘There are many things Anthony must improve. He is still learning. Tactically, he has a long way to go. Physically, I don’t think he is ready to play three times a week with European games. He has a good physique but he did not work so much in the gym. We preferred ball-orientated training at Lyon.

Samantha, pictured, is expecting her second baby. She has flown to the UK to be with her husband

Mrs Martial, pictured, has already been making WAG connections in England, within hours of flying to the UK

Manchester United striker Anthony Martial pictured relaxing with his infant daughter named Toto

Martial prefers to stay in with Samatha (pictured) and likes to relax with his family

Martial's infant daughter Toto dons Monaco kits with her name and 'Papa' on the back

‘It is his natural build but just because he is fit, it doesn’t mean his muscles are ready for the trauma of a 60-game season. But I am sure he will be a success in time.’

For now, Martial has his eyes set on his first meeting with the United squad on Wednesday and his first game could well be against Liverpool at Old Trafford on Saturday.

The message from France is of cautious optimism but the suspicion is that United have recruited a player of world-class potential.