‘Mbappe Doesn’t Know How To Play As Striker’

Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe received advice from his idol and club legend Cristiano Ronaldo during an interview the Portuguese conducted with El Chiringuito.

There are famous photos of a young Mbappe with Ronaldo posters on his wall, or meeting the five-time Ballon d’Or winner at Real Madrid HQ.

After completing a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain last summer, Mbappe now has the chance to emulate ‘CR7’ in becoming a Bernabeu legend.

“I love him very much, and not only because of the story he had as a young man that he loved Cristiano Ronaldo very much and he was his idol,” Ronaldo said about the Frenchman.

“But I really see him as a crack [i.e. a star player]

, and he is going to give Real Madrid a lot of joy,” Ronaldo predicted.

Now at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo confessed that he watches Madrid “from time to time because my son Mateo likes Mbappe a lot”.

There they’d see Mbappe operating as a central number 9, which the 26-year-old initially struggled with ahead of finding his feet which has caused head coach Carlo Ancelotti to recently dub him the “best centre-forward in the world”.

“The striker position makes it a bit difficult for Mbappe, because he doesn’t know how to play as a striker in my opinion… It’s not that he doesn’t know, it’s not his position,” Ronaldo said.

“If I were at Real Madrid I would teach him to play as a 9. Because I wasn’t a striker. I got used to playing as a striker. I played on the wing and people forget,” he reminded us.

“Kylian shouldn’t be your typical striker. If I were him, I would play more or less like Cristiano Ronaldo plays as a striker,” Ronaldo suggested.

The generational great also made a demand of Los Blancos supporters in their treatment of Mbappe, which is to “take care of him” first and foremost.

“I say this to the Real Madrid fans… Take care of the kid,” the 39-year-old stressed, before predicting that, “I have no doubt Mbappe is going to give Real Madrid fans a lot of joy”.

Though he has already done this at certain points of 2024/2025, Mbappe can further do so by helping see off Manchester City in the Champions League playoffs later this month.