Kylian Mbappe became a polarizing figure at Real Madrid by the end of the 2025/26 season, with tensions boiling over during the Real Oviedo game in which the striker had a meltdown after the match, bashing the club and throwing Alvaro Arbeloa under the bus.
That was only two months ago, but it feels like an eternity, with Mbappe's sensational, record breaking performances for the French national team at the 2026 World Cup leaving all that drama at the Santiago Bernabeu a mere distant memory.
Mbappe is cementing his status as the greatest ever World Cup player with France in a third straight World Cup semifinal, and the man himself is looking in full command, cool and in control as a real leader who is even making sure his teammates eat at the table. For example, he boosted up Ousmane Dembele and fed him assists against Norway, and he made great plays off the ball in several matches, including another assist for Dembele to put Morocco away in the quarterfinals.
Kylian Mbappe needs to be free
Real Madrid still believe in Mbappe 100 percent as the face of the team and that he, Jude Bellingham, and Vinicius Junior can not only coexist together, but can even excel with another Galactico, as Perez is obsessed with the idea of poaching Mbappe's French national teammate Michael Olise from Bayern Munich.
Florentino Perez hired Jose Mourinho with the full intention of making sure this project works with Mbappe, and Mou has stood by all the stars, emphatically stating time and time again that he relishes managing the biggest stars in the world.
And if he wants to be even more successful than he was the first time around at the Santiago Bernabeu, Mourinho is going to have to do what Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso could not but what Didier Deschamps has been consistently able to do. He needs to give Mbappe the keys.
Now, that does not mean taking the shine away from Vinicius Junior. That does not mean relegating Jude Bellingham, who might actually be the best of all of these players, to second fiddle. What it means is letting Mbappe do what he does with Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue, and Bradley Barcola.
Mbappe plays at his best when he can roam around the pitch, drop deep, and do the things other great strikers like Harry Kane and Karim Benzema have been able to do without much criticism. Now, Mbappe is nowhere near them all around as a creator, but as a scorer and weapon, he is in his own category, as the World Cup stats show.
High performance athletes with reputations like Kylian Mbappe's are decliate, in a way. They need to be nurtured, made to feel important, and be free. Real Madrid got it all wrong. Mbappe can be tamed and disciplined, but when he drifts, he needs people to move up into the box, like Jude, for him, and when he stays up, he needs Vinicius close by to play off of like Olise.
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