Kylian Mbappe's girlfriend Ester Exposito turns heads with glamorous gold outfit before the World Cup

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaching, attention around football’s biggest names has already started to stretch beyond the pitch. Kylian Mbappé remains central to France’s hopes, but in recent weeks, growing curiosity around his relationship with Spanish actress Ester Expósito has added another layer to the buildup. Expósito created fresh buzz after appearing at the Cannes Film Festival in a striking gold dress that quickly spread across social media, placing her firmly in the spotlight while Mbappé prepares for another demanding international tournament.Interest around footballers’ partners often rises before major tournaments, but Ester Expósito’s growing public profile has made her presence harder to ignore. Reports linking her with Kylian Mbappé first surfaced earlier this year after the pair were photographed together in Paris. Images from a luxury hotel outing and a bowling date fueled speculation before public appearances appeared to confirm the connection. One widely discussed moment near the Eiffel Tower only intensified the attention surrounding them.Unlike long-established football power couples such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez or Lionel Messi and Antonela Roccuzzo, Mbappé and Expósito are still viewed as a relatively new pairing. That has only increased curiosity heading into the World Cup, especially as France once again enters the tournament among the favorites.Expósito’s appearance at Cannes pushed that conversation even further. Photos from the event circulated rapidly online after the @vantixmag account shared images alongside the caption, "📸 Spanish actress and girlfriend of Kylian Mbappé, Ester Exposito arrives for the screening of the film “La Bataille de Gaulle : L’age de fer” (De Gaulle: Tilting Iron) at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival."The reaction was immediate. Fashion pages, football accounts and entertainment outlets all picked up the images within hours. For Mbappé, whose every move already attracts global attention, it showed how interest around his personal life has expanded well beyond sports coverage.Expósito was already one of Spain’s most recognizable young actresses long before the Mbappé rumors surfaced. Her breakout role as Carla Rosón Caleruega in the Netflix series Elite turned her into an international streaming star and helped her build a massive digital audience.She now has more than 24 million Instagram followers, a number that rivals many elite athletes and entertainers. Her career has also extended into film, with appearances in projects including Lost in the Night, Your Son, Venus and When Angels Sleep.Long before international fame arrived, Expósito had already earned recognition in Spain’s theater scene, winning Best Actress honors at the Madrid Theatre Awards in both 2013 and 2015. Now, with Mbappé preparing to chase another World Cup title, public fascination around the couple continues to grow alongside the tournament anticipation.