Kylian Mbappe Faces Press Questions Amidst Real Madrid's Trophy Drought

Kylian Mbappe walked into the press room at Valdebebas looking like a man who has won almost everything – and yet was being treated as if he’d won nothing at all.

Two seasons at Real Madrid, no major trophies, and a Champions League campaign about to start under a new-old coach in Jose Mourinho. The questions came fast, sharp, and with a familiar edge: Why hasn’t this worked? Why hasn’t he worked?

This is Mbappe’s third year at the Bernabeu, but it still feels like the trial hasn’t ended.

A superstar under cross-examination

The Madrid press didn’t waste time. They went straight for the fault lines.

His relationship with Vinicius Jr, amid constant rumours the two forwards don’t get along. The mood in the dressing room after last season’s reports of in-fighting under Xabi Alonso and then Alvaro Arbeloa. The sense that this Real Madrid, stacked with attacking talent, looks less like a team and more like a gallery of expensive individuals.

Then came the punchline: Mbappe has yet to win a major trophy with Real Madrid. Paris Saint-Germain, the club he left behind, have lifted back-to-back Champions League titles under Luis Enrique. PSG, the old symbol of chaos, now held up as the model of cohesion. Madrid, the old standard of collective power, accused of regressing into a star-led project.

That comparison stung. You could hear it in the questions. You could see it in the way Mbappe bristled.

World Cup king, club doubts

Mbappe pushed back. Of course he did.

He is only two months removed from becoming the World Cup’s all-time record goalscorer, after a summer in North America that further cemented his place among the greatest players the tournament has ever seen. Ten goals at that World Cup. Forty-two in 44 games for Real Madrid last season. A Ballon d’Or favourite again.

On paper, this is dominance. On grass, for France, he bends games to his will. For Madrid, the story feels messier.

The contrast is what hangs over him now. Mbappe with France is a force of nature, the reference point in a ruthless system. Mbappe with Madrid is a superstar still searching for the right frame. Two seasons, no trophies, and now Mourinho is back, summoned as the man whose reputation alone is supposed to impose discipline, structure and defensive edge on a team that has looked too loose, too indulgent.

If Mbappe’s third season needed a storyline, it already has one.

Early pressure, early miss

Mourinho did not have to wait long for his first crisis point.

On Friday, Madrid lost 1-0 at Real Betis. Mbappe stepped up late on, with a penalty that could have salvaged something. He missed. Madrid’s defeat left them already chasing Barcelona, who have opened their LaLiga title defence by scoring 17 goals in four straight wins.

It is early, but the pattern is clear. Barcelona look like a team. Compact, aggressive, ruthless in both boxes. Madrid, again, are being asked whether their stars do enough without the ball.

That question landed squarely on Mbappe and Vinicius. Do they work hard enough defensively? Are they willing to do what Ousmane Dembele does for PSG? What Raphinha does for Barcelona? The comparisons were laid out in front of him.

Mbappe did not flinch.

“If I wanted to be stupid…”

His answer cut through the room.

“If I wanted to be stupid, I could tell you that I score more goals than those two players you mentioned, so they need to score more to be like me. Everyone's different,” he said. “But I'm smart, so I'll tell you that I need to improve. But I don't like comparing myself because I do a lot of things that others don't. It's an endless debate. But yes, the whole team needs to improve defensively, and with the ball, we need to raise our level too."

It was revealing. There was pride, a hint of bite, and also a degree of self-awareness that tends to get lost in the noise around him.

Too much of his Real Madrid career has been framed around what he supposedly doesn’t do: the pressing, the tracking, the defensive graft. Less attention has been given to what he does better than almost anyone else alive.

Dembele is a Ballon d’Or winner and a two-time Champions League winner, but he did not dominate another World Cup the way Mbappe did. He cannot twist a match to his will with the same inevitability. Raphinha is a tireless wide forward, but he does not decide tournaments.

Mbappe knows this. He also knows none of it protects him from scrutiny at Madrid.

He was clear on one thing: in his eyes, he is the best player in the world. Others can disagree. They usually do. The debate will not stop.

The Vinicius question and Mourinho’s puzzle

Being the best, though, is not enough at this club. Not in this moment.

There was a brief opening in the summer when Arsenal’s interest in Vinicius offered Madrid a different route. Sell the Brazilian, and the attack could be rebuilt around Mbappe in his favoured left-sided role. Arsenal’s ambitious move even leaned on that logic.

It never happened. Vinicius stayed. The choice was made, or perhaps avoided, and now Mourinho must fit two left-leaning superstars into a structure that can actually win things.

That is where the judgement will be harshest.

Mbappe will always be measured in goals and moments. But this season, he will also be judged on balance – on how Madrid function with him and Vinicius sharing the stage, on whether he can be the leader of a team rather than simply the brightest individual in it.

Two seasons without a trophy have already tested the patience of a club that measures itself in silverware. The Champions League is back. Mourinho is back. The questions around Mbappe have never really gone away.

Now he has to decide what this third season becomes: a turning point, or another chapter in a story that still feels unfinished.