♦ Real Madrid will present Kylian Mbappe to fans at the Bernabeu next Tuesday
♦ France frontman Mbappe will wear the No 9 in his first season as a Madrid player
Real Madrid have announced that Kylian Mbappe will wear the No 9 shirt in his first season with the club.
The European champions have also revealed that Mbappe will be officially presented to fans at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium next Tuesday at noon (11am UK time).
Mbappe wore No 7 for the majority of his Paris Saint-Germain career but that jersey currently belongs to Vinicius Junior at Madrid. Meanwhile, Mbappe was France’s No 10 at Euro 2024 – a number that has been Luka Modric’s at the Bernabeu since 2017.
France were eliminated from Euro 2024 by Spain at the semi-final stage on Tuesday night. Madrid had been waiting until Mbappe’s Euros participation was over before announcing their plans to officially unveil him.
A club statement published on Wednesday afternoon read: ‘Real Madrid C. F. is pleased to announce that Kylian Mbappe will be presented at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium on Tuesday 16 July at noon.’
Kylian Mbappe wore the No 10 shirt for France at Euro 2024 but he will be Real Madrid’s No 9
Mbappe will be presented to fans at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium next Tuesday
Madrid’s announcements about Mbappe came under 24 hours after France exited Euro 2024
The statement continued: ‘President of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, will welcome Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid City for the formal signing of the contract that links our new player to the club for the next five seasons.
‘Following the presentation, Kylian Mbappe will speak to the media in the press room at the Santiago Bernabeu.’
A second club statement then confirmed that Mbappe would wear the No 9 jersey, which had been vacant since Karim Benzema departed at the end of the 2022-23 season.
It read: ‘Several Real Madrid players will change their jersey numbers at the start of the 2024/25 season. Camavinga, who until now wore the number 12, will change to 6.
‘Valverde will change from 15 to 8 and Tchouameni will move from 18 to 14. Arda Güler, who wore the number 24 last season, will wear 15 and Vallejo will wear the number 18.
‘All of these jerseys, as well as Mbappe’s, are available from tomorrow, Thursday 11 July, at the Santiago Bernabéu Shop and through all official Real Madrid sales channels.’
Mbappe, pictured in May this year, wore the No 7 for most of his Paris Saint-Germain career
Vinicius Junior (left) is Madrid’s current No 7, while the last player to wear No 9 for the Spanish giants was Karim Benzema – who left to join Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia after the 2022-23 season
Madrid confirmed multiple changes to their list of squad numbers on Wednesday afternoon
Mbappe is likely to make his unofficial Madrid debut during the club’s summer trip to the USA, where they will play friendlies against AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea.
His competitive debut should come in the UEFA Super Cup final against Atalanta in Warsaw on August 14.