Kylian Mbappe: The Real Madrid transfer that should never have happened

Paul Macdonald

Updated: 17 Apr 2025 08:45 BST
5 min read

Kylian Mbappe, PSG, Real Madrid, 2024/25 — © IMAGO

Kylian Mbappe, with last night’s Champions League exit versus Arsenal, has already solidified himself in the position as one of the highest-profile transfers that should never have been.

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We often look at the list of the most expensive transfers of all time and recognise that, in general terms, the amount of failures massively outweighs the successes.

Current ETV

Kylian Mbappé

F (C)

Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappé

F (C)

Real Madrid

ETV Range

€135.9M - €166.1M

Mbappe slides under that particular radar because of his ‘free’ transfer to Real, but that doesn’t in any way take into consideration what they have spent to get him.

You can almost leave to one side the ridiculous signing-on fee and salary that he was given (thought to be in the region of €100m to the Frenchman, and anywhere up to €20m per year).

You can even forget the ongoing disruption with former club PSG where he remains locked in a legal battle over salary payments.

You can almost forget about the fact he somehow is the majority investor in toiling Ligue 2 side Caen, whose supporters unanimously hate him.

But you can’t forget that this transfer to Real Madrid simply shouldn’t have happened and the fact that it did has provided an imbalance to one of the most predictable things in football - that Real Madrid usually always win.

As it stands they won’t achieve anything this season and while it’s not all down to Mbappe, the need to integrate him in some way has impacted everything around him.

In the 14 matches for club and country since the hat-trick against a downtrodden Manchester City in February, Mbappe has four goals from open play, against Leganes, Villarreal (x2) and Rayo. As the season hit its high point, Mbappe has done anything but, with the brutal red card challenge against Alaves at the weekend - one that deserved so much more than a measly one-game ban - indicating a total loss in focus.

© IMAGO - Kylian Mbappe has scored four open play goals in his last 14 appearances

The fact that Carlo Ancelotti removed him from the action on 75 minutes - the supposed best player in the world at the best team in the world in the Champions League quarter-finals - says everything about his lack of impact against Arsenal here.

Two shots, neither on target, three touches inside the box whenever he was able to stay on his feet - dive to win a penalty against Declan Rice notwithstanding - it’s not a performance of a player that Madrid spent nearly two years building towards.

And that’s the internal problem that’s never been solved. Ancelotti has shifted his full team around to accommodate Mbappe and everyone is worse off as a result.

Kylian Mbappe has made Real Madrid worse

Jude Bellingham’s last impactful performance was well over a year ago now against Barcelona; formerly breaking into the box from deep, he now finds three forwards, none of which really know where they will be at any given moment, nor does he himself know what his defensive responsibilities as a result of their inability to run in the opposite direction.

Vinicius Jr has gone from Ballon d’Or contender to literal joke; he now has five goals in 21 games in all competitions. His position as the best player in the world now looks silly, his role in his own team has been lessened, and the Brazil national team now feel they could probably do better without him.

Federico Valverde, one of the most dynamic, adaptable almost to a fault, midfielders is unsure how to support what is in front of him - when he’s allowed to play there. And as for Rodrygo, who for some has had a breakout season, well. Per 90 he’s played less, scored less, hit less shots and passed the ball less than the season before. It’s the Mbappe effect.

And it’s what happens when you buy a player who you really want to fit but never really did. President Florentino Perez has done it multiple times in giving a coach a player and asked him to sort it out, but less so in recent years - it could be argued that Eden Hazard (a disaster) was the most recent one.

STATS

Kylian Mbappé

F (C)

Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappé

F (C)

Real Madrid

53

Games
32

Goals
4

Assists

But the pursuit of Mbappe became the pursuit of a Galactico whose galactic era might have come and already gone, forcing him into a team that neither needed or wanted him at a time when literally every other team in the world was vulnerable around what they could achieve in Europe. This is the first time in five years that Real Madrid have gone out before the semi-final.

Real Madrid made a deal that they felt they couldn’t get out of. And in the end it might cost them their position as the team everyone wants to beat.