The curious case of Kylian Mbappé

The World Cup winner has had shockingly bad stats since he joined Real Madrid in July. What will it take to turn this around?

- Rudraneil Sengupta

What's going wrong for Kylian Mbappé at Real Madrid? In a word, everything. The French World Cup winner, long considered an exceptional talent destined to feature on the list of football's greatest players, appears to have suddenly forgotten how to play the game.

He shoots into the comfort zones of goalkeepers, a few metres to the left or right of them, or fluffs his shots entirely. Even his penalties are being saved. His legendary bursts of speed and elusive runs into the box are missing; he is currently outpacing and outfoxing no one.

In fact, in the latest El Clásico—Madrid's famed encounter with arch-rivals Barcelona—in October, Mbappé was caught offside eight times, the joint highest such tally by a La Liga player in 15 years.

At 18, Mbappé became the youngest player since Pelé to score in a World Cup final (2018). In 2022, he became one of only two in the history of the game to score in two consecutive World Cup finals (the other was Brazil's Vava, in 1958 and '62).