Kylian Mbappé To Real Madrid: A Blockbuster Signing With A Sense Of Hollowness

First, let’s do the sweet stuff.

When he was still a prodigy, Kylian Mbappé, raised in the Parisian suburb of Bondy, stuck his dreams around him. He did it poster by poster, building a shrine to Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo on the white walls of his bedroom.

Now 26 and a bonafide star, nobody in world soccer drives more hype than Mbappé—certainly in Real circles. That’s before kicking a ball or notching a goal for his new club (Los Blancos’ record scorer Ronaldo grabbed 450 before leaving in 2018). In a virtual handshake between two seminal galácticos, Ronaldo wished the Frenchman well after his signing, earning the most-liked Instagram reply ever. When Madrid’s club website released its long-anticipated Comunicado Oficial on Mbappé, it momentarily crashed under the weight of traffic.

It all speaks to the public frenzy generated by transfers these days. Here is the era of dizzying numbers, breakneck speed, spectacular goals, trophy hauls, and considerable money, which Mbappé already has in spades. Metrics to one side, the forward is delighted to join the powerhouse he idolized as a child. And so he should be. He will sprinkle his magic—that youthful, jet-heeled energy carved into world-class status—at the Santiago Bernabéu. Barring some unexpected fate, he will also collect his first Champions League honors.

In essence, this is the world’s best player going to the world’s best team. Just how exciting is that, though? Everyone expects him to wow—as he did at Monaco and then Paris Saint-Germain—just in a different jersey. Even by the La Liga champion’s standards, he’s entering one of Madrid’s most outstanding ensembles ever under conductor Carlo Ancelotti; it’s a winning machine, losing once in a victorious league campaign and gobbling up another European title. So, Mbappé is not a transformational recruit hired to restore the good times.

Only Real Madrid, the default glamor team in soccer, could have its billionaire president, Florentino Pérez, already thinking about the next Champions League so soon after winning its 15th. It’s a video game world. He’s ready to win again, this time with a sparkling brand-new gadget, perhaps in more style than the last. If anything, Mbappé not settling and hitting the heights in Spain would be a far more absorbing next stage in the plot.

It’s also worth remembering how long it took Mbappé—now gearing up for the European Championships with France—to leave PSG and join Real. Speculation over a move started around seven years ago, and the conversations lasted even longer—since the striker’s trial at Madrid in 2012. It dragged on and on and on. So, there was little novelty—more inevitability—that he would eventually cross the threshold.

Because, ultimately, Real Madrid always gets its man. And, knowing the club’s stature, there’s an entitlement to it. Author and journalist Simon Kuper, speaking on the Heroes & Humans of Football podcast, eluded to the tone of initial discussions between Mbappé and Pérez in 2017 when Real already had experience plucking the best players around.

Kuper said, “He (Pérez) comes to see Mbappé and says something like, ‘You see, I’m a busy man. I’m a powerful man. You’re only an 18-year-old kid, but I’ve made time to come and see you because we really like you. We want you to come to Madrid.’ And Mbappe thinks, ‘Who do you think you are? You think I should be grateful that you’ve made some time for me?’ He’s very put off by this.”

Of course, Mbappé is finally there because the pull of Real endures, no matter what. Power talks in elite soccer.

Now the question is how such a figure settles into the team, especially with another talent, Bayer Leverkusen speedster Florian Wirtz, reportedly following him through the entrance. Gathering an assortment of superstars, each with incredible attributes, the next dream team is upon us. Yet, with the fuss and predictability surrounding all this, today’s heroes succeeding those who trod the familiar winning path before, one could argue that it doesn’t fully capture the imagination. Unless you’re a Real supporter, that is.