For his first season at Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappé did not lift any major trophies apart from a European Super Cup and an Intercontinental Cup. On a personal level, the Bondynois certainly experienced a fairly difficult 2024/2025 financial year and marked by various controversies, but he was able to score 44 goals in 59 matches (all competitions combined) and win the Golden Shoe. This season is off to a better start. The captain of the Blues has not won anything yet, but his team is leader of the Liga standings, better placed in the Champions League (7th in the standings) and he is more than ever the number 1 offensive weapon of the Merengues (18 goals in 16 matches). But when Karim Benzema comes out of silence to judge his compatriot’s start to the season, A.S. take the time to listen to him.
Author of 354 goals and 158 assists in 648 matches in the Madrid jersey (between 2009 and 2023), the native of Bron confirms that this season’s Mbappé displays a more radiant face, even if he wanted to give some advice to the number 10 Merengue. “He’s much better. Scoring goals is nothing new for him. He did it at PSG and he will score goals at Real Madrid, a lot more. There will be matches where Mbappé does not touch the ball. What we expect from Kylian is that when he gets one, he has to score. Real Madrid is like that. Real Madrid needs him a lot and there are matches where we have to score goals, like against Atlético de Madrid, Liverpool… These are teams that are falling back and he has to show himself, work on these situations. He must combine with Vinicius ».
“He can’t do it alone.”
A message that echoes the general feeling given the start of the Real Madrid season. If Mbappé has become his team’s number 1 scorer, he cannot take the rest of his attacking teammates with him. Apart from Arda Güler, few Merengues know how to combine perfectly with the Frenchman. In addition, this Real Madrid struggles to compare when it has to face opponents who are much more consistent than the second-rate teams in La Liga. It is no coincidence that the defeats against Atlético de Madrid (2-5) and Liverpool (0-2) are often referred to as the big black spot at the start of Xabi Alonso’s reign. And for Benzema, if Mbappé wants to see his team triumph in Spain and on the European scene, he will have to progress on a collective level.
“Real Madrid is waiting for Mbappé for these moments, to win the Champions League. I think he can get there with the other players. He can’t do it alone. He needs Vinicius, other players… That’s how it is. I think Vinicius, Mbappé, Rodrygo, even if he doesn’t play much, Bellingham… they have to communicate. One is there to score goals, the other to make assists, we are not going to tell Bellingham to score goals because that is Mbappé’s role, nor for him to be number 10 because that is Bellingham’s role. They must communicate. He is better, but he needs to concentrate more at this moment when Real Madrid needs him because he has everything to do it”. To the wise…
