Mbappé in duplicate. The French star offered an image yesterday in Paris that, if it weren’t for the trick, would serve to distress all the planet’s defenses. Kylian attended the discovery of the wax figure that the popular Madame Tussauds museum in Berlin has made in his image and likeness. The resemblance is more than amazing. But the original, the one of flesh and blood, begins to mentally prepare for the double great challenge of his career: to finally win the Champions League and the Ballon d’Or… and do it with Real Madrid.
The Madrid entity designs the presentation of the star in the background and with maximum discretion, which was always planned to take place after the Wembley final and before Mbappé leaves for France. A slim margin, just a few days, but it will give birth to the first presentation of galactic significance since those of Cristiano, Kaká and Benzema in 2009. Fifteen years later and with the Bernabéu being another, new and shiny, like its French jewel.
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Mbappé, with the trophy for best footballer in the French Ligue1. @k.mbappeInstagram
Mbappé will emerge with different challenges. The first is to win the affection of the sector of Real Madrid fans who are still emotionally hurt by their previous ‘noes’. That is the beginning, but only the first station of a trajectory that he wants to convert as soon as possible into two objectives that obsess him. First, the Champions League. The 2020 final still stings. It was the only time he has seen Orejona up close, but only in passing. Madrid puts him on that step naturally: in the last ten seasons the white team has reached six finals, winning five and being able to maintain the full title if they win at Wembley. Kylian will join a very high competitive habitat that should elevate even more. He can do it: in the Champions League he has participated in 74 goals (48 goals and 26 assists) in 73 games. With him, it is almost like starting by winning 1-0 or 0-1 in the matches of the highest continental competition…
The new Bernabéu as a springboard
You will also be granted the universal showcase that you crave so much. Despite the enormous influence of PSG and the fact that France Football is the one who awards the Ballon d’Or, Mbappé has never been able to win the coveted golden ball. He has never gone above third place, which was in the last edition. But with Haaland, who is emerging as one of his great threats in the coming years, second… The two after Messi, who will pave the way for this new generation in the 2024 Ballon d’Or. Real Madrid also offers him a prestigious and privileged platform to achieve that dream. Since 2013, she has been a Madridista six times. Four on Cristiano’s shelf (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), one Modric (2018) and the most recent, Benzema (2022).
For Mbappé it also means a new myriad of bars to overcome. So far he has not shown his power outside the French borders. Winning the Spanish League, more complicated than Ligue 1 in which PSG exercises a football dictatorship, is a considerable incentive. He will also take advantage of the entire Madrid arsenal of stars around him to go for the Golden Boot (he finished second in 2018-19 and 2021-22) and surpass his scoring record in a season. He is at 44 points from last year. Reaching fifty appears on his horizon. The mix of Madrid and Mbappé makes up a tremendously attractive cocktail for both.
Mbappé himself, asked during the presentation of his wax statue, was convinced of its success: “Yes, I am excited, because I am someone who looks forward. And when you often look ahead, you look at what awaits you, not at what you leave behind. Maybe it’s a quality, or a defect, but that’s who I am. So I know that what awaits me is going to be magical,” although he also noted that it is going to be a great adventure: “It’s hard to know what I’m going to miss. Because until you actually leave you don’t know. I said I was leaving, but I’m still here, so my life hasn’t changed. I think that when I get abroad, I will miss the food, that’s for sure, because everyone who leaves says so. But later, I also think that all habits, family, loved ones…, but as I told you, I am going to lose some things, but I will find others. It is a part of my life that is going to close, but another that is going to open and that is going to be super exciting, for sure.”
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2024-05-17 10:03:06
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