He's blamed for everything! Does this superstar make clubs worse? | OneFootball

A footballer is cuddling up with his girlfriend on a boat, enjoying life, dangling their feet in the water. Innocent enough pictures, the kind you’ve seen in thousands of Insta posts from pros, almost triggered a state crisis at Real Madrid. Some fans are even calling for Kylian Mbappé to be sold.

The forward is the biggest superstar of the new Galácticos. This season, he has scored 41 goals in 41 competitive matches, found the net in both Champions League quarter-final games against Bayern, scored in the Clásico league win over Barcelona, and still has a chance of winning this year’s Ballon d'Or. Even so, 'TNT Sports' reported last Thursday on a fan petition demanding his sale. The alleged number of signatures at the time? 30 million.

Even if the reliability of that figure is highly questionable, Mbappé has once again stirred up the fans. The latest uproar was sparked by a vacation in Italy that he treated himself to around a week ago.

The reports came thick and fast, because the 27-year-old chose to go on the trip even though he was injured. The criticism was that he was not focused enough on getting fit again. 'El Mundo' and 'AS' wrote that Real Madrid were surprised by this behavior, and teammates had reacted with disbelief, especially since this is currently a difficult time for Los Blancos and Barça are on the verge of winning the title. In today’s Clásico against the Catalans, the title could already be decided.

Isolated at Real?

Mbappé is said to have responded only with the following statement: "My body, my decision." Journalist Jorge Picon then added fuel to the fire on Tuesday, because not everyone believes Mbappé was actually injured. It also would not be the first time this season that the striker has taken such a break.

But all the uproar was also a sign of how frantically every little thing involving him is being reacted to. Picon at one point said there was a real crisis between club and player, and 'L'Equipe' added that Mbappé was becoming increasingly isolated within the squad. He does not track back enough, and teammates supposedly feel he is too privileged. Fittingly, 'The Athletic' wrote that there had been an altercation with a member of the coaching staff in which he was disrespectful after an offside decision was given during a training drill.

On the other hand, 'AS' pushes back and says there are no doubts about Mbappé at Real and that he simply needs to be integrated better into the tactical system. The player also knows that he has to adapt more and is willing to do so. Fabrizio Romano said that there are no discussions at Real about letting their biggest star go. The situation is not easy, but the relationship between player and club is by no means broken.

What is truth and what is fiction in all of this is hard for outsiders to judge. But the fact is that Mbappé has not won a major title since arriving in Madrid two years ago. Critics also keep pointing toward Paris, where PSG won the Champions League for the first time after his departure and are now already back in the final of Europe’s top competition. So does Mbappé actually make his teams worse despite his goals? Is he too dominant? Too much of a diva? Does he not work hard enough defensively?

📸 CRISTINA QUICLER - AFP or licensors

"It’s not just Mbappé"

Romano then added one important sentence that may provide the answers to those questions: "It’s a complicated moment for Real Madrid, but it’s not just Mbappé."

And this is probably the heart of the problem. There is constant unrest throughout the entire club right now. The public clashes between then-coach Xabi Alonso and Vinícius Júnior, a fierce dressing-room bust-up between Antonio Rüdiger and Álvaro Carreras a few weeks ago, or a training-ground row between Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde that even ended with a hospital visit and caused the vice-captain to miss the Clásico with a traumatic brain injury. According to 'Marca', six players are no longer speaking to the current coach. There is constant tension at Real.

On top of that came ongoing injury problems in defense and, in the Champions League quarter-final against Bayern, also a bit of bad luck with Eduardo Camavinga’s red card. Progressing was certainly possible.

So it is too simplistic to pin Real’s lack of titles solely on Mbappé. Rather, there seem to be too many players throughout the team who see themselves as more important than the team’s success.

Here too there is a parallel with PSG. The French side once also tried to build a super team with Mbappé, Neymar and Lionel Messi. That attempt failed for the same reason: the megastars’ egos clashed. Only after all three had left and been replaced by more team-oriented players did success come. The conclusion would be that no team can afford more than one all-dominating superstar.

Real still remembers the Cristiano Ronaldo era, when he had a special role on the pitch, but the rest of the team accepted it and titles were won.

Madrid therefore have to decide: either they build a team that supports Mbappé optimally and accepts his antics, or they focus on a different centerpiece. Right now, though, it looks more like Real will try a third way once again. They would rather look for another coach who can perform the miracle that neither Carlo Ancelotti nor Xabi Alonso nor Álvaro Arbeloa managed to pull off: turning all of these Real individualists into a functioning collective.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Adam Pretty - 2026 Getty Images