Kylian Mbappe can no longer be considered one of the best players in the world amid his struggles at Real Madrid, ex-France player Jerome Rothen says.
Mbappe faced plenty of criticism throughout his final season at Paris Saint-Germain and the negative headlines have followed him to Real Madrid, where he has failed to live up to the hype since his free transfer in the summer.
The 25-year-old disappointed once again when he missed a penalty as Madrid lost 2-0 to Liverpool in the Champions League, with many highlighting his body language in the players’ tunnel at half-time as his team-mates appeared to ignore him.
Ex-PSG and France winger Rothen fears Mbappe will not be able to bounce back from his current slump, which he believes stretches back to the 2022 World Cup final defeat against Argentina.
Verdict
“Since the World Cup final in Qatar, it’s been decadence.
“Not in terms of stats, because he’s always scored a lot of goals.
“At PSG, he held on thanks to this ratio, but we can’t say that he shone in the Champions League over the last four months,” Rothen said on RMC Sport.
“What he showed [against Liverpool], in a big match…
“I find it hard to be lenient.
“You have to be demanding with a player like that, because he has set the bar so high that when you see him perform like that.
“In fact, he has become an ordinary player.
“That’s what’s most serious.
“And it’s not just the last three months and his arrival at Real Madrid, it’s the last year and a half.
“Have the opposing teams properly assessed Mbappé’s strengths and weaknesses?”
He added: “I especially have the impression that he is caught up in his private life, in the apprehension of his professional conscience.
“At PSG, when he renewed his contract, very quickly, it was not the same attitudes on his daily investment, on his investment in matches, on his communication…
“I think that a lot of things have evaporated and taken him out of this bubble of the best players in the world.
“Will he be able to find that again?”
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Mbappe has nine goals from 18 matches for Madrid this season and is under pressure to improve on that record ahead of the weekend’s match against Getafe.
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