Probably because it is getting closer to Real Madrid and we have to prepare the fireworks now, the Madrid press has begun to treat Kylian Mbappé as “the best in the world”.
“The best in the world has said no to Saudi Arabia”, “The best in the world is training only with PSG discards”, “The best in the world will not renew until 2025”. We humbly ask: since when is he the best in the world? Who consecrated it?
(You can read: Kylian Mbappé has already decided his future after PSG: this is the answer to Saudi Arabia).
Mbappé, the best in the world?
Mbappé is a cheetah. Possibly the most powerful footballer in history among the great greats. Ronaldo Phenomenon was breaking, Pelé was not half as light, Gerd Müller was a rock, but not fast either. Perhaps Eusebio could resist a physical and football parallel with Kylian.
The one from Mozambique was a panther. This is a combination of equal parts strength, speed and agility. If the long shot, zuuuuummmmmm… is gone, no one can match the line. The secret to marking it is to overtake it and anticipate it, never wait for it or zone it.
Kyle Walker swallowed it with that formula in the France-England match of the last World Cup. His basically is the goal, although it is not from the area, he starts ten or fifteen meters from 18, on the left wing, draws a bisector and looks for the three sticks.
Nor does he have a refined technique, in one-on-one he wins by speed, not by skill or deception, and many times, due to his own vertigo, promising plays get dirty or spoiled. He is very strong in the head. He has a number one soul and is preparing to be. He learns, he has perfected his shot, especially on the right, he adjusts it to the post. He is already in charge of penalties and free kicks at PSG and the national team. That will help you statistically. He is not a natural leader, although he assumes leadership. He takes charge.
Its negative points: He doesn’t create a game on his own, he needs an assistant to enable him in depth (at PSG it was Messi, in France it’s Griezmann). Someone to throw him the ball so that he runs and kicks at the goal. In other words, he does not depend on himself.
His defect: he passes the ball badly, surprisingly badly many times. Possibly for wanting to do everything to a thousand.
And he has a sweet tooth: he doesn’t always play it when some comrade is in a better position. We can still classify him as a team player, although he has the Cristiano Ronaldo tendency to think, above all, about his personal numbers. At 24 years and 7 months old, he has scored 279 goals in 389 matches, at an average of 0.72. He has 118 assists. He has good press: they just tell him the good ones. When he misses goals or is absent (as against Bayern Munich) we don’t talk.
(Also: PSG puts an astronomical price on Mbappé, and Real Madrid does their math).
Who said he was the best?
Elite player, without a doubt, a galactic too, he has everything to be the best in the world, but is he? Before his arrival at PSG, the Franco-Qatari club threaded, one after the other, the League and the Cup. In Mbappé’s 6 seasons in their ranks, the Eiffel Tower club continued in the same way, although in the last two neither Cup from France. The precious objective – the Champions League – was not met.
In a spicy interview for L’Équipe, the Brazilian Leonardo, former sports director of PSG, did not bite his lips: “For the good of PSG, Mbappé must go.” He then recounted: “It is quite possible to win the Champions League without Mbappé”, pointing to the fixation that the club has had since Qatar bought it.
“Paris Saint-Germain existed before Kylian Mbappé and will exist after him,” said the 1994 world champion. He has been in Paris for six years and in those six seasons five different clubs have won the Champions League (Real Madrid in 2018 and 2022, Liverpool in 2019, Bayern Munich in 2020, Chelsea in 2021 and Manchester City in 2023), none had Mbappé in their ranks.”
And he went further: “With his behavior in the last two years, Mbappé shows that he is not yet a player capable of really guiding a team. He is a great player, not a leader. He is a great scorer, not a creative. It’s hard to build a team around him.”
Kylian has never won a Champions League, nor a league in Spain or England, he has not managed to be a European Golden Boot. But the most striking thing is that, in eight seasons that he has completed, he has never even been shortened for the Ballon d’Or. Consider that the highest individual award for a footballer is given by France Football, from Paris, that Mbappé is French and Parisian, the spoiled child even of President Macron, who has elevated it to the category of national heritage. Well, in eight editions, Kylian was never even in the final triumvirate to win the statuette. Let’s see: you’re number one, the prize is delivered to the corner of your house, and you’re never even in the top three? How is that?
The 2023 Ballon d’Or will be awarded on October 30. It is perfectly feasible that Kylian will not be on the podium in the next election, for which the favorites, according to the English TV channel Sky Sports, are Messi (75%), Haaland ( 19%), De Bruyne (2%) and Rodri (2%). Mbappé has so far collected 1%.
Messi has been world champion, of France (nominated best foreigner in the League) and is revolutionizing soccer in the United States. Good arguments. Haaland, De Bruyne and Rodri won the most glorious treble with Manchester City: League, Cup and Champions. In the case of Haaland, with the addition of having scored 52 goals in his first season in the Premier League. A movie premiere. Mbappé scored 41 times and lifted the French champion’s trophy. It tastes little Maybe he should wait another year in that race.
The total break between Mbappé and his club suggests that the only and immediate destination of the attacker is Real Madrid. Florentino Pérez is obsessed with him and wants to open the new Bernabéu, which will be the most lavish stadium on the planet, with a superstar. She is none other than Kylian. He gives the perfect profile: crack, divo, super media.
Now, how can the Parisian fit into Di Stéfano’s club? Huuuuummm… Madrid has reserved the center of attack for him, which Benzema has left vacant (it’s funny, Spain unanimously considers French football “a league of farmers”, but a farmer leaves and they run to find another).
The offensive trident is already designed: Rodrygo, Mbappé and Vinícius. Lo and behold, Kylian plays the same as Vinícius, a winger on the left who makes the diagonal towards the center and finishes off from the right. If they put it to the right, they turn the map of the court upside down. He doesn’t sneak into the center because the area takes away acceleration spaces and he is not a skilled player, but rather a human torrent. Will the Brazilian leave him the band in which he feels comfortable? Another huuuuuummm… Gone Benzema, Vinícius is today the maximum reference of Ancelotti’s team, the new idol. Moral: there is no altruism between luminaries.
And yet another huuuuuummm: despite being the most successful club in the world, Madrid has a quiet dressing room, with a low profile, with zero vedetism, in which the outgoing faces were or are Benzema, Modric, Kroos, home guys. How will this tufted rooster fit in? Will they leave you the penalties, the free kicks, will they have to give you all the passes? Madrid is not the hacienda of the Parque de los Príncipes, it is much more.
But those are five cents apart. The thread passed elsewhere: whether or not he was the best in the world. Ernest Folch, former director of the Barcelona newspaper Sport, responds: “Kylian Mbappé is almost the best player in the world, almost the best scorer, almost the most decisive, almost the one with the best future. Yes, almost, but he is not “.
JORGE BARRAZA
FOR THE TIME
@JORGEBARRAZAOK
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