At a glance
- Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham had a “strong confrontation” during a match where the Englishman was whistled.
- The news comes just days out from El Clasico.
- More symbolically, however, it also emerges during reports of clashes between other sets of players.
Another day, another report on a bust-up between Real Madrid players.
This time it’s Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé‘s turn. According to Roberto Morales, appearing on COPE, a “strong confrontation” occurred on the day the Los Blancos jeered certain individuals including the Englishman and Vinicius Jr.
“On a day when the Bernabéu whistled the players and pointed to Bellingham, there was a strong confrontation between Bellingham and Mbappé at half time,” Morales claimed.
“It was a big confrontation and there have been more,” he added. Furthermore, this is backed by RMC Sport reports at the time.
“If we go a little further back, Vinicius made a big deal when Mbappé reappeared at the Club World Cup with Xabi Alonso. That’s when the relationship between Vinicius and Xabi Alonso began to go awry. Because he put him in a position that he doesn’t like and Vinicius said he didn’t want to play there. That’s when he began to see that Xabi Alonso gave Mbappé an affection that he didn’t give to [to Vinicius],” Morales explained.
“You can pull the thread and see that there have been many more [bust-ups,” Morales then concluded.
Do Bellingham and Mbappe get on well at Real Madrid?
It’s interesting that news of a rift between the pair, despite playing together for almost two seasons, has just surfaced now.
From a sporting perspective, Bellingham was a “fox in the box” attacking midfielder who put up Pichichi-challenging numbers in his first campaign at the Bernabeu.
That yielded the La Liga and Champions League titles at his first attempts in 2023/2024. Yet when Mbappe arrived on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain, Bellingham had to take a backseat. He’s had a more retreated role since, and his numbers have diminished.
While in 2023/2024 they were 23, that dropped to 15 the following term and now six. A lot’s being made of Bellingham posting team photos to social media without Mbappe there. The aftermath of the 2-0 win over Espanyol at the weekend is one example.
Amid rifts between Alvaro Carreras and Antonio Rudiger, then Fede Valvervde and Aurelien Tchouameni, this is one more that the next head coach has to mend to end the major silverware drought.
It might take a no-nonsense disciplinarian from the old school like Jose Mourinho to put everyone in line. For that reason alone, it’s easy to see why he’s Florentino Perez’s preferred candidate.
