Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe is feeling the full brunt of the backlash of what happens when a highly paid, highly hyped superstar player does not perform. But worse than that, though Real Madrid are the biggest club in the world and have a tradition of winning, the fans are not fair weather. They do not only applaud for goals and quality. And they do not jeer for lacking quality. What they do not tolerate, above all else, is losing and players who do not fight for the badge.
Madridistas are starting to think along the lines of PSG manager Luis Enrique, who has only been proven right by winning time and time again without Mbappe, with PSG playing the most fluid football in Europe after letting the Frenchman go to Real Madrid.
They are seeing through the flaws and the poor defensive effort ,and the scenes of Mbappe, vacationing in Italy while injured before El Clasico with a chance to play and everything on the line, have caused it all to reach a boiling point.
Kylian Mbappe is no Cristiano Ronaldo
Criticizing a player for vacationing while injured is rarely a good luck, but Spanish journalist Susana Guasch Llovensa put things succinctly into terms that those outside the Real Madrid fan base can understand better. Speaking on the Radioestadio Noche program on Onda Cero, Guasch compared Mbappe to his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, "Cristiano would have spent eight hours with the physios trying to make it to the Clásico, and Mbappé no, that's why he doesn't connect with the madridismo."
Even Casemiro famously said that he would never do something like this if Real Madrid were in a bad way, but it is perhaps most jarring to draw a direct comparison between Kylian Mbappe and the greatest player in club history.
Cristiano Ronaldo was a serial winner to the point of addiction and obsession. He himself even admitted his desire to win was unhealthy. But that is what Real Madrid fans want to see from their main player - or, at least, something beyond an emotion evoking between apathy and complacency, which is exactly how Mbappe has been coming across.
Though Cristiano scored a ton of goals and cared about things like his numbers, records, and appearances, he did prioritize winning and would work with his teammates and for the team. Mbappe never has. And as Guasch points out, Mbappe has not shown that same obsession for helping the team that Cristiano did, and every little thing he does now becomes a microcosm of a reminder of that. Real Madrid fans feel cheated by their supposed jewel.
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