The curious case of Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid
Football Leaks. What a wonderful and welcome addition to our lives, right? At a club like Real Madrid they are ever present, no matter the timing.
As well as causing us to question other teams and player demands, it also gives a lot of us the chance to say “I told you so!” when we hear something that literally no one has ever told us. Two summers ago, the rumors of Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid from AS Monaco intensified before dying down slowly as it was confirmed that the Frenchman decided to join Paris Saint-Germain and we automatically began pointing the finger at Florentino Perez and to a certain extent, Zinedine Zidane.
This continued over the summer and last summer as well when Real Madrid saw the sudden departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus. Perez was blamed (and still is) for not being able to bring in an adequate replacement for the prolific Portuguese player who contributed to 50+ goals per season for us.
When speaking of someone such as Ronaldo, the only players who could maybe “replace” him have to be incredible as well. Therefore, the list of replacements is incredibly small: Lionel Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe. I am a massive fan of Eden Hazard but even he cannot make that list.
As supporters, we tend to blame something familiar; we tend to listen to what others are saying around us. Florentino Perez is the man in charge of making transfers, he gave the official approval for the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, and he didn’t bring in a replacement. Therefore, this is all his fault. Why couldn’t we stop and give the benefit of the doubt to someone who knows the club more than we do? Someone who has directly contributed to so much of our success in the past few years? The answer is quite simple, we just didn’t want to take the time.
In regards to the Mbappe transfer, Perez actually did what he had to do and what the supporters were hoping he would do, according to the same report that explained Mbappe’s transfer to PSG. He wanted to make the transfer happened and was prepared to offer a very hefty fee to ensure it was done. Unfortunately, Perez does not have the financial power he once did as the world was introduced to “Arab Money” and PSG were able to hijack the deal and offer him more than Perez was ready to.
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That fact in addition to the player’s father and the agent being worried Real Madrid can’t guarantee him playing time practically ensured that the transfer wouldn’t go through.
No player is bigger than the club. When did that change?
If there was one thing that I can agree with Perez on, it’s the statement that no player will ever be bigger than the club. James Rodriguez, Angel Di Maria, and Cristiano Ronaldo are just some examples that Perez will follow that motto no matter what and I will always support him there. As Santiago Solari said during his first press conference, “Real Madrid is bigger than all of us”, and that is something we should all believe until the very end.
Florentino Perez has contributed so much to us and has never come out and spoken about things such as the Mbappe transfer collapse even though he knew practically everyone blamed him. Has he brought a lot of negatives to our lives? Of course, he has but he can’t make the right call every time. He’s only human and we tend to forget that.