Kylian Mbappé and Real Madrid, a match made in football heaven

Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid, the galactic transfer that finally completed on Sunday, was a slow saga of power, money, politics and ambition.

It started years ago with flirting and dating. A presidential intervention and Qatar’s wealth extended this. But an explosive letter from 2023 reignited it. And throughout 2024, a crescendo of rumors and reports, each more certain than the last, turned a likely outcome into a foregone conclusion. Mbappé had decided to leave Paris Saint Germain; he had subsequently communicated his decision to the club; then he reached an agreement with Real Madrid; he then announced his impending departure. He even had his new home set up in Spain.

That he was heading to Madrid became the worst-kept secret in all of sports, a secret that towered over him and two entire countries.

But now it’s just a match made in football heaven.

It’s the rare compatible marriage between superstar and superclub.

And now that the contracts have been officially signed and official announcements will follow soon, it is a childhood dream come true.

This was the only sensible outcome of the saga, even after Mbappe rejected Real Madrid in 2022. This time he never seriously considered or negotiated with another club. Because there was only one who could match and strengthen his ambition.

Madrid was of course also the club that decorated the walls of his childhood room. That is the romantic story, and one that will surely be concocted to distract from the more cynical view – the accusation that this is some kind of competitive cop-out. Mbappé failed to win the Champions League in seven seasons at PSG. The fact that he joins the team that seemingly always wins, à la Kevin Durant with the Golden State Warriors, is not lost on anyone.

But the real story here is more pragmatic and rational. The fit is seamless. Real Madrid was tactically, culturally and commercially the only club capable of accommodating Mbappé’s talent and celebrity.

His move will invite comparisons with his previous super team and with the trident of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Mbappe that defined PSG in 2021/23. Their failures will naturally raise a provocative question: Are we sure Mbappe will work in Madrid?

But his new attacking trident – ​​Mbappé, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham, arguably the three best players in the world today – will look very different.

Messi and Neymar were (and are) ball-dominant stars that a team must revolve around. Neither defends. Messi hardly runs. Both are great as unique focal points, but when there were multiple focal points in Paris, the balance and chemistry of the team went wrong.

That won’t be the case in Madrid because Mbappé, Vini and Bellingham are all flexible.

While PSG had to build a team around certain players, Madrid will welcome Mbappe to a team that has already been carefully built.

In fact, the team structure will hardly have to change. Madrid have conquered Spain and Europe this season in a slightly unconventional 4-3-1-2, with Vini and Rodrygo as fluid forwards drifting from the touchline into the middle, and Bellingham behind them. At worst, Mbappe will simply slide into Rodrygo’s position – a position for which he seems ideally suited – and increase the team’s dominance.

At best, he will arm Madrid’s shrewd manager, Carlo Ancelotti, with new options and dynamics. Mbappe can play in the middle of a three, as part of a front two, or out wide. He could play as a classic striker in a 4-3-3, with Vini on the left and Rodrygo on the right and Bellingham deeper. Or he could join the 4-3-1-2 and offer more direct attacking power, more speed, more goals, more… everything.

That “clinical [number] nine,” Bellingham said on Saturday after a 2-0 win in the Champions League final over Borussia Dortmund, “the only little thing that might [the current Real Madrid team were] missing.”

“If he came and gave us that,” Bellingham said of Mbappé, “we would be in a really, really great place. He would take us to another level.”

And his arrival won’t disrupt Real Madrid’s dressing room, or at least it shouldn’t. According to reports, players have reacted to the Mbappe news with enthusiasm, and not with skepticism or discomfort. And Mbappé isn’t your typical megastar; he is humble and personable in every way. With Vini and Bellingham, and his compatriots Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga, and many others, he should fit right in.

And his salary will help him with that. It is, according to reports, not the stratospheric salary he was offered by both Real Madrid and PSG two summers ago. His annual salary, about $16 million, will be more in line with that of Vini and Bellingham. He will receive a huge signing bonus – reportedly more than $100 million – and retain certain image rights. But the structure of the contract will help him blend in, in a way.

And while Messi and Neymar were bigger than PSG, no one is bigger than Real Madrid. Mbappe will be entering a club with infrastructure and well-honed systems that are used to supporting and managing players like him. He will lift the club’s football ceiling; but the club could perhaps raise its profile more than theirs.

And the rich will get richer.