Kylian Mbappe’s Real Madrid love affair: The dates with destiny leading to his debut

“Buenos dias a todos,” Kylian Mbappe said. “Bear with me, I’m going to try to speak in Spanish.”

No apology was needed. Mbappe’s excellent Spanish was perfectly understood by all 80,000 Real Madrid fans packed into the Santiago Bernabeu for his presentation last month.

“Wow, it’s incredible to be here,” Mbappe continued, clearly struck by the reception. “I’ve dreamed for many years of playing for Real Madrid. I want to especially thank all the ‘Madridistas’, because for many years they have given me a lot of affection, a lot of love, which went straight to my heart.“

It’s not uncommon for an arriving player to claim they have always dreamed of playing for their new club.

But it’s unusual for a signing to talk of feeling such love if they have regularly scored important goals against their new club, while regularly turning down public offers to come and play for them.

In this case, the message made sense. The story of Mbappe growing up as a Madrid fan and idolising former galacticos Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo is already part of Bernabeu folklore. He began learning Spanish as a teenager so he would be ready for his move to Madrid. Many in the Spanish capital viewed him as one of their own long before he arrived following his Paris Saint-Germain exit.

On the morning of his presentation, Mbappe visited Madrid’s training ground to greet his new coach Carlo Ancelotti and sign his contract with president Florentino Perez in the club’s offices. The ultra-modern facilities at Valdebebas, on the outskirts of Madrid, have changed a lot since his first visit in December 2012.

Back then, they pulled out all the stops to impress Mbappe, who turned 14 that week. Zidane, then an advisor to Perez without a formal role at Madrid after his legendary playing career, chaperoned him throughout. That was referenced in the forward’s July unveiling, when previously unseen footage of the pair in discussion during one of Mbappe’s trial games was shown.

Mbappe also had his first taste of the Bernabeu atmosphere that week, with Zidane hosting him and his family for a league game against Espanyol. It seemed like fate even then. As an eight-year-old, he had received a model of the stadium as a gift. “One day I’ll take you all to Real Madrid and we’ll sit in the VIP seats,” Mbappe told his parents that Christmas.

The game was not much fun from a Madrid perspective — Ronaldo and Fabio Coentrao scored, but Espanyol fought back for a 2-2 draw to leave Jose Mourinho’s team 10 points behind arch-rivals Barcelona in the title race.

But Mbappe left happy, especially because Zidane introduced him to Ronaldo after the game. A photo of the meeting was soon proudly displayed in his bedroom in the Parisian suburb of Bondy. Not that the teenage Mbappe and those around him allowed too much emotion to influence his career decisions.

The summer after he visited the Spanish capital, he turned down an offer from Madrid, entering Monaco’s youth system instead. “I wasn’t ready to go abroad and leave my friends and my country behind,” he later told Le Parisien.

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But the connection between the boy from Bondy and the Bernabeu remained strong. Many in Madrid were watching as he made his Ligue 1 debut for Monaco aged 16, before scoring 26 goals in 44 games in his first full season.

In the summer of 2017, when Mbappe was still just 18, Madrid and Monaco’s hierarchy agreed a €180million transfer. But, reportedly on then-Los Blancos coach Zidane’s advice, he decided the smart choice was to join PSG instead. As luck would have it, Madrid and PSG were then drawn together in the following season’s Champions League last 16.

That meant Mbappe’s first taste of playing at the Bernabeu came against the team of his dreams in the February 2018 first leg. Mbappe’s cross around the half-hour mark was touched back by Neymar for Adrien Rabiot to sweep PSG in front, before Ronaldo scored twice in a 3-1 win for Madrid. Ronaldo also scored in the 2-1 victory in the return leg to take Madrid through.

Mbappe on his first trip to the Bernabeu with PSG in February 2018 (VI Images via Getty Images)

Mbappe won the World Cup with France that summer, and for a while he seemed fully focused on PSG.

But nobody in Madrid had forgotten about him. When Eden Hazard was signed from Chelsea in the summer of 2019, many Real Madrid fans chanted, “We want Mbappe,” at the Belgian’s Bernabeu presentation, causing some awkwardness for Perez.

UEFA then obliged again by drawing PSG and Madrid together in the 2019-20 Champions League group stage. Injury ruled Mbappe out of the first meeting in Paris, which PSG won 3-0, but his star power was shown by the 81,044-capacity Bernabeu selling out for the return game.

When the line-ups were read out before kick-off, Madrid fans whistled their own player, Gareth Bale, but cheered Mbappe’s name. On the pitch, two Karim Benzema goals put Madrid in control. Mbappe hardly featured, until Thibaut Courtois’ fumble handed him a tap-in.

Mbappe’s celebration of his 70th goal in just 100 games for PSG was surprisingly muted. The Bernabeu crowd reacted to their team conceding a goal by chanting, “Sign him now.” Madrid youth product Pablo Sarabia scored an unlikely equaliser for PSG to claim a 2-2 draw that meant both teams were set to qualify — but for many, the result was not the most important thing.

Instead, the conversations before and after the game were about how Madrid could get Mbappe to join. One story that week in Spanish newspaper El Mundo claimed an agreement was already in place for him to run down his PSG contract and join Madrid on a free transfer in the summer of 2022.

A free transfer for Mbappe remained the most likely outcome given PSG were not minded to sell.

Many at the Bernabeu assumed their club’s €180million offer in the summer of 2021, for a player with just a year left on his contract, was more about showing Mbappe they still wanted him than any real expectation of the bid being accepted.

That all added to the drama when Madrid and PSG were again drawn together in the Champions League last 16 in February 2022. Mbappe had four months left on his PSG deal and confidence was high around the Bernabeu that he would soon be theirs.

His fine display in the first leg in Paris led to even more mixed feelings. Playing wide on the left, he tormented Madrid right-back Dani Carvajal, who conceded a penalty by tripping him with an hour gone. Lionel Messi, then at PSG, took the spot kick, but Courtois saved.

Mbappe was not to be denied. With the game almost over, he bamboozled Madrid defenders Eder Militao and Lucas Vazquez, then shot hard and low into the far corner.

The Frenchman celebrates his goal against Madrid in February 2022 (Loic Baratoux/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The passionate celebration that followed was much scrutinised. Some in Paris had questioned his commitment to the team still paying his significant wages. Madrid fans and executives were not sure what they felt — their team had lost a crucial game, but the glimpse of a potential future was thrilling. Marca’s cover the next day focused on the positive by proclaiming: “How good is Mbappe!”

Three weeks later in Madrid, Mbappe started the game playing even better. Courtois was forced into two difficult saves inside the first 12 minutes. Just after half an hour, a neat side-foot finish pinged into the narrow gap between ‘keeper and post, but the goal was disallowed because team-mate Nuno Mendes was offside. Soon afterwards, the seemingly inevitable happened as Mbappe raced clear and confidently fired home.

The Bernabeu crowd watched in silence. Early in the second half, Mbappe dummied Courtois and finished into an empty net, only for another offside flag to frustrate him. Still, PSG remained 2-0 up, and the tie was almost over.

Then came an error by visiting goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to help Benzema pull one back. Suddenly, energy surged through the stadium, PSG were stunned and Benzema knocked in two more to complete a hat-trick in less than 20 minutes as Madrid sealed another famous remontada.

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Mbappe had clearly been the outstanding player over the tie, but was out of the competition. He had also now witnessed the power and emotion of the Bernabeu when Madrid turned the tide like this, albeit from the other side. Most in Madrid believed it now even more likely he would soon experience that feeling himself in their iconic white shirt.

That was definitely the expectation the next time Mbappe appeared in the Spanish capital, for a visit with PSG team-mate Achraf Hakimi, a Madrid native and Morocco international who began his career at Real.

Details were breathlessly reported by Madrid-supporting media. Mbappe and Hakimi stayed at the Hotel Eurostars Madrid Tower, which is within a skyscraper built on the site of Real’s former training ground. They ate at meat restaurant Lena, not far from the Bernabeu, which is a favourite of Madrid players. They later visited the Opium Madrid nightclub, also often frequented by the city’s young footballers.

Mbappe himself announced his presence in the city on social media — widely taken as a hint he would soon be living there permanently, as the Frenchman and his camp must have known it would.

It all meant the shock and disappointment were even greater just a few weeks later, when PSG announced that Mbappe had agreed a new contract to stay with them. It was a bitter blow for many at the Bernabeu, which wasn’t fully dispelled by beating Liverpool to win another Champions League trophy in Paris.

After all that disappointment, Mbappe did not return to Madrid for two years.

In October 2022, it was reported he would accompany PSG team-mates including former Real players Sergio Ramos and Navas to a bullfight at the city’s Las Ventas arena, but he did not show. He visited Ramos’ stud farm near the defender’s native Seville the following month, but the Frenchman was not spotted anywhere near the Spanish capital.

Madrid fans still followed him closely. They cheered when he scored a hat-trick for France in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, and shared his pain when former Barcelona icon Messi’s Argentina won instead.

Last January, when it emerged he would leave when his contract ended this June, the extreme focus on everything Mbappe returned to the Bernabeu. Madrid supporters were doubly delighted in April when his brace dumped Barca out of the Champions League quarter-finals.

But the extent of their shared connection became clear only during Mbappe’s July presentation.

Mbappe in the Real Madrid dressing room in early August (Victor Carretero/Real Madrid via Getty Images)

He entered the Bernabeu’s shiny new press room beaming that day, while clutching the famous model of the stadium he had received as a kid almost two decades ago.

“I was under a lot of pressure this morning when I woke up,” he said in excellent Spanish. “I thought I must enjoy every second, if my nerves allowed me. The passion and love the fans have shown me is unbelievable. I feel like an adopted member of this family.”

Many new players make emotional statements on their first days at a new club, but the bond between Mbappe and Madrid has existed for over a decade. It just took a while to come to fruition — and on Wednesday night in Warsaw, as Madrid take on Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup, we should finally see it in the flesh.

(Top photo: Diego Souto/Getty Images)