Kylian Mbappe will be out of the lineup with an injury, leaving the rest of the Real Madrid players to prove the narrative right that they, like PSG, are better off without their newest Galactico. Mbappe has created such a looming presence above any conversation about the team, and the disappointment of his second half of the 2025/26 season - and really, his overall campaign, in spite of the picture the individual numbers may present - even has those in France talking.
RMC Sport journalist Jerome Rothen had to admit that when he was watching Bayern Munich and PSG put together an all time classic in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals, a 5-4 win for the Parisians, he realized that Mbappe is not capable of the same individual brilliance with the ball at his feet that PSG forward Ousmane Dembele and Bayern Munich right winger Michael Olise are capable of.
Already these past two seasons, Mbappe, again, in spite of the goals he scores as the reigning European Golden Shoe, has been outplayed by Dembele and Olise. It was Dembele who won the Ballon d'Or last season, leading PSG to the Champions League title the very year after Mbappe left to join the 2023/24 champions, proving Mbappe wrong in his assertion that PSG were far away from being the best team in Europe.
Kylian Mbappe is not at Michael Olise's level right now
And now this season, Olise, along with his striker teammate Harry Kane, is one of the leading frontrunners for the Ballon d'Or, showing a consistency and quality surpassing Kylian Mbappe. That was observed by Madridistas head to head when Bayern Munich knocked Real Madrid out of the quarterfinals, because whereas Mbappe floundered, Olise delivered a monster class.
Real Madrid fans are watching Mbappe's own compatriots work hard on both ends of the pitch, progress play, and win games as part of an actual team, whereas Real Madrid are performing worse with a higher salary paid to the supposed Cristiano Ronaldo 2.0. But Mbappe is nothing close to his childhood hero.
Mbappe can still be great at Real Madrid, but if even the journalists in France are admitting that he is behind players he was once seen as superior to just a couple of years ago, then there is something amiss about the quality of the supposed best player in the world they had splurged on from PSG. Beyond the questions of attitude, Mbappe is stagnating, and he may not be as special as Madridistas thought before 2024.
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