{"id":428863,"date":"2026-01-23T21:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/428863\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T21:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:36:09","slug":"f1-legend-max-verstappen-picks-real-madrid-star-over-yamal-as-best-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/428863\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 legend Max Verstappen picks Real Madrid star over Yamal as best in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Max Verstappen is undoubtedly the biggest name in the world of Formula One right now. With four back-to-back World Drivers\u2019 Championships between 2021 and 2024, he has established himself as one of the greats in the game.<\/p>\n<p>What makes Verstappen an interesting character, though, is that he remains interested in things outside F1 and is a self-proclaimed fan of Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>However, despite his association with Bar\u00e7a, the Dutchman, in a recent interview, has picked Kylian Mbappe as the best player in the world while praising Real Madrid as a club.<\/p>\n<p>What Verstappen said about Mbappe and Real Madrid<\/p>\n<p>In a recent interview, as relayed by <a href=\"https:\/\/defensacentral.com\/mas\/max-verstappen-4-veces-campeon-formula-1-fan-barcelona-mi-jugador-favorito-es-real-madrid_330078_102.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Defensa Central;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Defensa Central<\/a>, Verstappen was asked about his favourite footballer right now.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of picking Lamine Yamal or Pedri, as one would expect from a Barcelona fan, the Dutchman didn\u2019t hesitate to name Kylian Mbapp, who has recently <a href=\"https:\/\/madriduniversal.com\/mbappe-equals-cristiano-ronaldos-record-as-history-repeats-itself-at-real-madrid\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:equalled the record held by Cristiano Ronaldo;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">equalled the record held by Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/09f886234d6d75101c1a2e916320fcc3.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Max Verstappen is a huge fan of Barcelona. (Photo by Mark Thompson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy favourite footballer? In general, Johan Cruijff and right now Kylian Mbapp\u00e9,\u201d said the four-time Formula One world champion.<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen went on to heap praise on Real Madrid and the club\u2019s model. I\u2019m a Barcelona fan, but Real Madrid is exceptional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Bull Racing driver, who lost the 2025 Championship to McLaren\u2019s Lando Norris by just two points, is particularly impressed by Real Madrid\u2019s ability to instantly replace their veteran stars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReal Madrid manages its squad very well; its current starting eleven is exceptional, but they make sure that once the older players are nearing the end of their careers, they are immediately replaced\u00a0by promising young talents capable of filling the void,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Finally, he added that Real Madrid\u2019s formula should be replicated in F1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat they do is what I think we should also try to achieve in Formula 1\u00a0: have an older driver who is at his peak or about to reach it, and have his successor take over immediately to prevent the team from regressing,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen is undoubtedly the biggest name in the world of Formula One right now. With four back-to-back&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1205,49,48,578,576,577,178795,15864,1885,564,82,1615],"class_list":{"0":"post-428863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-johan-cruijff","15":"tag-kylian-mbappe","16":"tag-max-verstappen","17":"tag-real-madrid","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-yamal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}