Presented as the new superstar of Real Madrid last July, in a delirious Bernabéu, Kylian Mbappé has not yet found his place on the pitch. The 25-year-old striker suffers from comparison with Vinicius, both up front and as a left winger, and his personal problems (following his withdrawal from the France team last October) have clearly weighed him down . For example, he was catastrophic during the Clasico lost against Barça. That said, Mbappé managed to score the net 10 times in 19 matches in all competitions.
After his eighth goal in La Liga last Sunday against Getafe (2-0), and with his first goal in the European Super Cup against Atalanta and his only achievement in the Champions League, the 2018 world champion is already doing better than a certain Karim Benzema. The latter had in fact completed his first season at Casa Blanca, during the 2009-2010 financial year, with only 9 goals scored in 33 matches (8 goals in the league, one in C1). “Not bad for a finito”laughs the X account GioMbappe to defend the Bondynois. This did not fail to provoke a reaction from Real’s French-speaking followers.
Mbappé much more accomplished than Benzema
The argument given by Mbappé fans is not very honest. Real Madrid’s new number 9 has far fewer excuses, he is already an accomplished player, 2018 world champion, top scorer in the 2022 World Cup and top scorer in PSG history. Benzema, for his part, had certainly been recruited for 35 million euros from OL, already being the new crack of French football (elected best player in Ligue 1 in 2008), but he was only 21 years old and is arrived in a squad full of stars, with two Ballons d’Or Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka recruited during the same off-season.
That said, Karim Benzema was not a substitute during his first season at Real. Manuel Pellegrini lined him up from the start during the first part of the season alongside Ronaldo and Kaka. The Lyonnais played a series of La Liga and Champions League matches, proving decisive on a few occasions and it was an injury at the start of February which allowed his competitor for the number 9 position, Gonzalo Higuain, to gain his place and finish the season as a starter (for a record of 29 goals in 40 matches). Benzema took several seasons before becoming a world-class striker and making Real history. What Mbappé is still far from having done.
