Kylian Mbappé is in a no-win situation at Real Madrid. He is arguably the world’s most high-profile footballer, playing for the game’s biggest club, and is having to live up to impossible expectations. But the reality is he’s never going to match up to the standards set by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
In purely statistical terms, Mbappé has made an unspectacular, but decent enough, start to life at Madrid with eight goals in 14 in club appearances since signing for the European champions from Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent in the summer.
Six goals in 10 LaLiga games is a return lower than his expected goals (xG) total of 7.74 but still makes Mbappé the team’s leading scorer in the league so far this campaign, placing him ahead of Vinícius Júnior (5) and Rodrygo (3). Jude Bellingham, who by this stage last season had 13 goals to his name, hasn’t even scored yet this term, but the England midfielder’s worrying loss of form has escaped the spotlight because it is instead being firmly focused on Mbappé.
Plenty was expected of the 25-year-old when he finally ended years of speculation by running down his PSG contract and moving to the Bernabéu. Since bursting onto the scene as a teenager with Monaco in 2017, Mbappé has been billed as the natural heir to Ronaldo and Messi as football’s biggest superstar. His pace, goal threat and peerless ability to shine on the big stage for club and country — he has scored four goals in two World Cup finals for France — justified his status as the game’s new No. 1 ahead of the likes of Erling Haaland, Vinícius Jr. and Bellingham.
But after just a handful of games for Madrid — most recently Saturday’s 4-0 Clásico defeat at home to Barcelona (stream a replay on ESPN+) — his most notable achievement appears to be the unenviable distinction of being caught offside eight times in one game, making him the first player to register such a high number in LaLiga for 15 years.
Eight goals in 14 games? No, let’s talk about Mbappé’s offside record instead.
In an ideal world, Mbappé would now be top of LaLiga’s scoring chart rather than finding himself eight goals behind Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski. Mbappé would also be winning games, scoring hat tricks and doing all those things that Ronaldo was able to do with incredible regularity during his nine-year career at the Bernabéu. But while Mbappé must take responsibility for his performances so far, it isn’t all down to him.
Only Ronaldo and Messi, who did for Barcelona what Ronaldo did for Madrid, have been able to write their own narrative and dictate the outcome of games by the sheer power of their talent and determination. Mbappé is a world-class talent, but it is time to judge players like him without the impossible comparisons to Ronaldo and Messi.
For Mbappé to shine as Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez would have expected during all those years of trying, and failing, to lure him from Paris, he needs those players around him to rise to the challenge. This is a Madrid team that no longer have the passing genius of Toni Kroos in midfield following the Germany international’s retirement during the summer. And Luka Modric, whose ability to carve open a defence with his vision helped Ronaldo to many of his goals, is now understandably a fading force at the age of 39.
Had a prime Kroos or Modrić, who was a 63rd-minute substitute against Barcelona, been playing behind Mbappé, perhaps they would have spotted his runs early enough to ensure that he wasn’t offside so much. Had they picked him out two of those times, who knows how Mbappé would have done with a one-on-one against Barça goalkeeper Iñaki Peña?
Madrid’s midfield on Saturday — Bellingham, Federico Valverde, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga — was unquestionably strong. Each of those players would walk into most teams in world football. But none of them have the flair and vision of Kroos and Modrić, so perhaps Mbappé’s apparent struggles are as much down to the absence of creativity in midfield as any of his own shortcomings.
In LaLiga this season, Bellingham has registered just three through-balls from midfield; Valverde has managed one; Camavinga and Tchouaméni haven’t mustered a single effort between them. So, collectively, the players behind Mbappé aren’t providing great service.
All goal scorers need reliable service. Haaland scores so often for Manchester City because of the many players who create his chances. Stick Haaland in the under-performing Manchester United team and his goal output would likely be very different.
Mbappé’s problem is that he arrived at Madrid as football’s most exciting superstar with the status of Ronaldo and Messi’s successor. It is a tag that he has earned, even if his last 18 months have seen something of a levelling off in his performances.
But it is one thing assuming the mantle of being the world’s biggest football star. It is something else entirely to be expected to do what Ronaldo and Messi were each able to do so consistently and spectacularly for over a decade.
Mbappé can still be football’s top star, but he isn’t Ronaldo or Messi. Football will be waiting a long, long time before somebody even comes close to matching those two. We all need to get used to that.
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