Real Madrid superstar striker Kylian Mbappe now has the record for the most goals in World Cup history, and most people around the world were raving about his statistics for the French national team this summer.
But a familiar scene played out for the Madridista faithful this summer. Mbappe scored his goals, padded his stats against easy opponents or meaningless games, and then when it came time to perform against the best of the best, he totally flopped and looked like he did not even belong on the pitch.
Unlike the rest of the world, Real Madrid fans are not fooled by empty calorie statistics, and after watcing Mbappe win two Pichichi trophies but nothing with the team while PSG won back to back Champions League titles, he is in a do or die year under Jose Mourinho, who was hired with the implied purpose of being the first manager to make things work with Mbappe at the club level.
Kylian Mbappe is at a crossroads after the World Cup
After a productive World Cup campaign but one in which Mbappe was not truly the hero as France fell short to a much better team in terms of actual team play in Spain, he has to prove himself to Real Madrid that he is worth the wages and all they have invested in him.
The 2026/27 season is it for Kylian Mbappe. He has to show what he did at the beginning of the World Cup tournament for France when he was smiling, confident, and acting like an actual leader while both scoring the goals and helping the team - not like what he was against Spain when he looked like he could not care less about winning or stepping up to the competition.
Real Madrid fans hae seen Mbappe up close and personal these last two seasons, and they have the same concerns that the PSG fans did before they ultimately turned on Mbappe and believed in Luis Enrique, whose words about PSG being better off without the French supersar proved 100 percent correct.
If Mbappe can win real silverware and defend, create, and play like an actual all around forward, then the critics at the Santiago Bernabeu will finally be believers again after two long years without trophies. But if the petulant, underperforming Mbappe shows up and Real can't win even with Jose Mourinho, Mbappe will give Madrid its most dire chaos since 20 years when Mourinho had to rescue Madrid the first time around.
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