Kylian Mbappé's Third Season at Real Madrid: A Verdict Looms
Kylian Mbappé sat down in front of the microphones and cameras looking like a man who knew what was coming. Third season at Real Madrid. Still no major trophy. Paris Saint-Germain, the club he walked away from, now back-to-back Champions League winners. Every question circled the same theme: why hasn’t this marriage between superclub and superstar really worked?
The Madrid press did not hold back. They went at the fault lines.
How is his relationship with Vinicius Jr, given the constant rumours that the two forwards don’t get along? What is the atmosphere like in a dressing room that, last season, was dogged by reports of in-fighting under Xabi Alonso and then Álvaro Arbeloa? Has this version of Real Madrid, stuffed with talent, actually regressed into an expensive collection of individuals while PSG, under Luis Enrique, have turned into a team?
Right at the end, the sharpest question landed: Mbappé has yet to win a major trophy in white. PSG have lifted two straight Champions Leagues without him.
The contrast is brutal. And unavoidable.
Mbappé bristled, but he did what he usually does in these situations: he defended himself with his record. Just two months ago, he became the World Cup’s all-time leading goalscorer, adding another layer to a tournament legacy that already places him among the greats. His summer in North America brought 10 more goals. His second season at Real Madrid finished with 42 goals in 44 games. On pure output, he stands as one of the leading contenders for the Ballon d’Or.
Yet the numbers don’t quiet the noise. They frame it.
The problem, for Mbappé, is the split-screen image. Mbappé with France, dragging games to his will. Mbappé with Madrid, still searching for the same authority. Two seasons without a trophy have brought José Mourinho back to the Bernabéu, the club effectively admitting it needs his old aura of discipline and control to unlock a squad bursting with attacking talent.
Mourinho has not had the luxury of a gentle start. His first real test arrived quickly, in Friday’s 1-0 defeat away to Real Betis. Mbappé stepped up late on, with a penalty to salvage a point, and missed. Madrid already trail defending champions Barcelona, who have rattled in 17 goals across four straight LaLiga wins. It is early, but Barcelona are already dictating the pace of the title race, and doing it with a clear collective structure in and out of possession.
So the questions turned to work-rate. Do Mbappé and Vinicius do enough defensively? Are they willing to graft the way Ousmane Dembélé does at PSG or Raphinha does at Barcelona?
Mbappé’s reply cut both ways.
“If I wanted to be stupid, I could tell you that I score more goals than those two players you mentioned, so they need to score more to be like me. Everyone's different,” he said. “But I'm smart, so I'll tell you that I need to improve. But I don't like comparing myself because I do a lot of things that others don't. It's an endless debate. But yes, the whole team needs to improve defensively, and with the ball, we need to raise our level too."
The line about being “stupid” and “smart” will travel, but the more revealing part was his insistence that he is different, that comparisons miss what he brings. He knows the debate will never stop. He also made it clear where he stands in it: Mbappé was unequivocal in his belief that he is the best player in the world.
That conviction does not shield him from scrutiny. If anything, it invites more.
Too much of his Madrid career has been spent, as he sees it, on what he supposedly lacks. Dembélé, a Ballon d’Or winner and two-time Champions League winner, has not illuminated another World Cup the way Mbappé has. He cannot take a game by the throat in quite the same way. Raphinha, too, lives in a different category of influence. Mbappé accepts that others will disagree, that they are entitled to their view. He simply does not share it.
Still, the questions around him in Madrid go beyond his own brilliance. They touch on balance, on structure, on choices made at boardroom level.
There was a brief moment in the summer when everything could have been reshaped. Arsenal’s approach for Vinicius opened a door. If the Brazilian had gone, Real Madrid could have built the attack cleanly around Mbappé, instead of trying to squeeze two left-sided superstars into the same XI. That possibility even fed into Arsenal’s thinking. But Vinicius stayed. The experiment continues.
Now the responsibility falls on both of them. They must find a way to coexist, to complement rather than crowd each other, to turn overlapping zones into coordinated movement. Mbappé will not only be judged by his goals this season, but by whether Madrid look like a team with him on the pitch.
Two seasons. No trophies. Mourinho back on the touchline. Barcelona already out in front. PSG lifting the cup Madrid crave, twice, without him.
For Mbappé, this third year at the Bernabéu no longer feels like a continuation. It feels like a verdict.
