The president of the European champions is addicted to expensive footballers. But his predilection often harms the club and the players themselves
eople will tell you there’s no such thing as club DNA. How could there be? The managers change, the players change, the directors and backroom staff change. So how can a club have a distinctive identity? How canOften it makes little sense.
Post-Covid, as the whole of European football felt a financial pinch, Madrid seemed to have changed. The club made a series of wise transfers, buying players on the way up. Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga and Jude Bellingham weren’t cheap exactly – they cost a little more than $250m between them – but neither were theyin the truest sense.
Last season the balance of the forward line seemed perfect. Bellingham played centrally but dropped deep, creating space for Vinícius from the left or Rodrygo from the right to swoop into. Add Mbappé into that and the result is a mess. Bellingham scored 19 times in 28 league matches last season; his goal against Osasuna on 9 November was his first for Real this season, as he has been forced to operate deeper.
In that squad, in that league, with his talent, he could essentially do what he wanted. It was all very easy for him and the result was that, in big games, he was often involved only fleetingly, if at all. It has been a similar story for France. In the 2022 World Cupand final, he had to be moved off his preferred left flank into the centre because of his refusal to track the opposing right-back.
The fear must be that his time in Paris, when he was challenged so rarely, has blunted his edge so he has forgotten how to solve problems on the pitch. Hopefully for him – and for football – it will return. But his case does show the potential problems – even for the most talented players – if they choose the wrong club. Given the tactical issues, it may be that Real Madrid isn’t the right one for Mbappé either.
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