Real Madrid hopeful of using Jude Bellingham example to convince Kylian Mbappe to move to Spain; Real have chased PSG striker for three years but have been unable to strike deal until this point; France striker is out of contract in Paris next summer
The words traveled to Clairefontaine as rapidly as they were dispensed on a podcast in Spain. “We hope that Kylian Mbappe will have the same reasoning as Jude Bellingham,” Jose Manuel Otero, a member of Real Madrid’s board of directors, told Remontada Blanca.
The subject, as it has been for three years, is the French captain’s future. If that talking point feels stale, the framing with Bellingham offers a fresh slant that Real are happy to play on and which has pierced ‘Team Mbappe’.
The excellence, rocketing status, and Ballon d’Or priming of the England midfielder is not just headline news in the Spanish capital and England.
Telefoot, the leading French football broadcaster and rights holder for the national team’s games, dedicated a show to Bellingham titled ‘La Nouvelle Star,’ with Zinedine Zidane, Eduardo Camavinga and Aurélien Tchouameni all sharing their thoughts on “le joueur phare de ce debut de saison” – the flagship player at the start of the season.
“With everything Kylian had during this summer, he has the right to have, in the hellish pace of matches, a period when he is a little less good and a little less effective,” he replied.
In France, they talk of two versions of Mbappe: the dynamic force before his decision not to activate his one-year option with PSG, leading to a now partially resolved toxic dispute with the club, and a jaded version afterwards.
