At the foot of the Pablo Picasso towers in Nanterre, Launys walks with the confidence of a teenager who feels the season turning in his favour. Three matches into the campaign, the AC Boulogne-Billancourt Under-16 forward had scored six times — and the attention around him was beginning to grow.
“I have six goals in three games. I’m on fire. This is my year,” Launys says, setting the tone for a decisive season in the young players’ development.
The striker is a product of AC Boulogne-Billancourt, one of the leading youth clubs in the Paris region. For the club’s Under-16 group, the campaign carries particular weight: it is the year in which promising players hope to earn a place at a professional academy.
A season under close watch
Launys and his team-mates are the focus of La bascule, a video series that followed the squad across an entire season, both around the pitch and in their everyday lives.
Île-de-France remains one of world football’s richest breeding grounds for professional talent, and the pressure is never far away for teenagers approaching academy age. Performances can change reputations quickly, particularly for a goalscorer making a fast start.
Launys has increasingly become central to Boulogne-Billancourt’s side and knows that scouts and observers are starting to take notice. “People are beginning to talk. People are starting to come and watch the matches,” he says.
Confidence beyond the pitch
Off the field, the young forward’s personality is just as visible. Walking through his Nanterre neighbourhood, he jokes with a friend: “You’re lucky to be walking down the street with me.”
He then compares himself to Kylian Mbappé, teasing his companion with a play on the France captain’s name.
The self-belief is backed, for now, by goals. Having established himself as an important and seemingly indispensable figure in the Under-16 team, Launys is entering the period when strong form can bring academy opportunities — and perhaps interest from elsewhere.
