If you ask the majority of Real Madrid fans, including those who have been less than complimentary of the new forward, they all want to see Kylian Mbappe succeed to the fullest at the Santiago Bernabeu. Realistically, Mbappe isn't going anywhere, and as the 2026 World Cup has highlighted, an Mbappe that is in full flow is still one of the scariest and most productive players in the world.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has hired Jose Mourinho because through his experience working with Mou together and also seeing him as an opponent over the years, he believes the Portuguese manager is the best man to light a real fire under Mbappe. Mourinho is one of the few managers in world football with the name and charisma to get the right message through to characters like Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, and Jude Bellingham.
Mourinho has yet to take charge of a game for Real Madrid, but, already, Madridistas can tell there is a very different level of class between him and his predecessors. He is as good as Carlo Ancelotti, but he has that extra bit of verve to grab the bull by the horns and direct it somewhere productive.
Jose Mourinho is a problem solver
He provided one of his first examples of that top tier man and media management with what he said about Kylian Mbappe. Jose Mourinho was asked about the rocky relationship between Mbappe and the Real Madrid fans, and he managed to avoid giving Mbappe a pass for potential misbehavior while still backing the former PSG star to the fullest.
Mourinho said of the second all time leading World Cup goal scorer, via the Madrid Zone, "How will I handle fans criticism towards the team and towards Kylian Mbappé? I need to see things with my own eyes, because there are some things I need to understand. For now, all I know is what I read in the media and what I see on TV. The only thing I can tell you about Kylian, is that he's a phenomenal player, and that I'll try to help him become even better."
The cynics will say that if Luis Enrique got laughed in the face by Mbappe and could not win with him, then Mourinho is not magically going to have an easier time either. Yet Enrique is very much not Mourinho, not in temprament or experience. And Mourinho has a way of relating to players that is uncanny, just look at how others with purported problems like Mario Balotelli and Zlatan Ibrahimovic got along with him.
Real Madrid fans will love the way Mourinho is backing Mbappe and how confident he is in getting him to play even better. Mourinho is the coach who relishes working with the biggest names and solving the biggest problems. He will solve this one, too.
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