\u2018Deluded\u2019: Familiar Poms panic erupts over public spat as team \u2018fracture\u2019 laid bare \u2014 UK View<\/a><\/p>\nRemarkably, none of the Real Madrid players who have scored at this World Cup come from the Spain squad, which does not include a single player from the 36-time La Liga champions.<\/p>\n
Madrid\u2019s goals tally is due in large part to England\u2019s Jude Bellingham, who has scored six, but above all to Mbappe, who has found the net on eight occasions and sits level with Lionel Messi at the top of the World Cup scoring charts.<\/p>\n
Mbappe, 27, has looked to be at the peak of his powers at the World Cup, the tournament he took by storm as a teenager during France\u2019s run to the title in 2018 in Russia.<\/p>\n
Like France coach Didier Deschamps and the rest of the France squad, Mbappe is determined to deliver a third star for Les Blues, four years after their agonising defeat in the 2022 final in Qatar.<\/p>\n
Mbappe during training before the semi-final vs Spain.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
– \u2018A phenomenal player\u2019 –<\/p>\n
Mbappe\u2019s World Cup form has done little to dispel the criticism he faced in Madrid towards the end of the season, where he was accused of prioritising country over club — an act of footballing lese-majeste in the eyes of some.<\/p>\n
He was booed by his own fans and saw a petition demanding his exit signed by more than 70 million people. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s life,\u201d Mbappe said of the animosity towards him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t change people\u2019s minds when they\u2019re angry. I shouldn\u2019t take it personally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the life of a Real Madrid player, and a famous player like me. They\u2019re not happy. That\u2019s the only way to understand the whistles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina advance to World Cup semis | 01:33<\/p>\n
The disconnect with Real Madrid fans continues to be a point of intrigue at this World Cup.<\/p>\n
Just this week, French publication L\u2019Equipe spoke to fans in Madrid ahead of the Spain game, uncovering a lament about his club attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect him to show more character, like what he demonstrates with his national team,\u201d one fan told the publication. <\/p>\n
In sporting terms, Mbappe\u2019s second year at the club he joined in the hope of winning the Champions League was a frustrating one, marked by an early Champions League exit at the hands of Bayern Munich and a La Liga title race lost to Barcelona.<\/p>\n
Extraordinary individual numbers — 42 goals in 44 games, including 25 in the league, enough to earn him the Pichichi trophy as La Liga\u2019s top scorer for a second straight season — did not spare him friction at a club where trophies are the only currency that counts.<\/p>\n
One flashpoint came in May, when Mbappe took aim at then-coach Alvaro Arbeloa for leaving him out of the starting line-up against Real Oviedo on his return from a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t played because the coach told me I\u2019m the fourth-choice forward in the squad, behind (Franco) Mastantuono, Vinicius (Junior) and Gonzalo (Garcia),\u201d Mbappe told reporters, adding he respected the decision and was \u201cnot angry.\u201d <\/p>\n
Arbeloa subsequently denied giving that assessment, telling reporters Mbappe had misunderstood him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly didn\u2019t say anything like that to Mbappe,\u201d Arbeloa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps he didn\u2019t understand me. I don\u2019t know what else to tell you. At no point could I tell him that he\u2019s the fourth-choice forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the coach, and I\u2019m the one who decides who plays and who doesn\u2019t. I had a conversation with him before the match. I don\u2019t know how he might have interpreted it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Switzerland’s Embolo sent off for dive | 00:22<\/p>\n
Then, in March, reports emerged of disagreements between Mbappe, his entourage and Real Madrid\u2019s medical staff over the handling of a persistent knee injury.<\/p>\n
The player sought to play down the affair, denying any suggestion of a misdiagnosis by the club, though he did not convince everyone.<\/p>\n
Since then, Real Madrid have changed their medical staff. They have changed coaches, too. Determined to avoid a repeat of the short-lived Xabi Alonso experiment and the troubled interim reign of Arbeloa, the club turned to Jose Mourinho to lift them out of crisis.<\/p>\n
Soon after his appointment, the Portuguese manager wryly remarked he hoped his players would be \u201cknocked out of the World Cup as soon as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
On a more serious note, in an interview in late June, Mourinho struck a warmer tone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing I can say about Kylian Mbappe is that he\u2019s a phenomenal player, and I\u2019m going to try to help him to be even better than this,\u201d Mourinho said.<\/p>\n
Above all, Real Madrid\u2019s fans will be hoping the Frenchman can carry their team next season the way he is carrying France.<\/p>\n
Bellingham wins it for the Three Lions! | 00:26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For France at the World Cup, Kylian Mbappe has not been able to stop scoring. For Real Madrid,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[2620,375251,64,63,937,22706,6257,375257,6167,369293,596,375254,4517,3512,121458,2557,4742,24419,375255,90942,12022,99083,16260,43269,2016,375253,85,3370,22294,375252,2614,375256,146111],"class_list":["post-799236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-alvaro-arbeloa","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barcelona","tag-bayern-munich","tag-champions-league","tag-club-v-country","tag-dallas","tag-didier-deschamps","tag-football","tag-goals-tally","tag-hamstring-injury","tag-knee-injury","tag-lionel-messi","tag-madrid","tag-medical-staff","tag-paris-saint-germain","tag-phenomenal-player","tag-portuguese-manager","tag-province-of-barcelona","tag-province-of-madrid","tag-qatar","tag-real-madrid-c-f","tag-russia","tag-scoring-charts","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-title-race","tag-troubled-interim-reign","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-v-country-debate","tag-xabi-alonso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n