The defining football transfer saga of the decade reached its long-awaited conclusion in June 2024.
Real Madrid have been burned a couple of times but finally they got their man — and Kylian Mbappe will play at the Santiago Bernabeu after his Paris Saint-Germain contract expires this summer. The 25-year-old confirmed his departure from PSG on May 10, though he did not reveal his next destination.
Madrid announced the deal with Mbappe on June 3, just two days after their record-extending 15th Champions League title win. On July 16, the forward was presented in the Spanish capital in front of close to 80,000 fans inside the Bernabeu.
It's starting to look like the beginning of Madrid's next Galacticos era.
Of course, the first time around, prosaic quibbles about where superstar players might fit into a functioning football team were for the birds. Want to sign David Beckham when you already have Luis Figo on the right wing? No problem: just sell Claude Makelele and get Becks to have a go at what will soon become known as "the Makelele role." He'll get used to it.
It begs the question: where will Mbappe play for Real Madrid, given that Jude Bellingham has nailed down the 'star goalscorer' role, and Vinicius Junior likes playing in precisely the same spot that Mbappe does?
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Where will Kylian Mbappe play for Real Madrid?
Pep Guardiola will, for myriad reasons, never manage Real Madrid. As such, Mbappe will not be playing as some sort of auxiliary wing-back. He will be playing in attack, given he is arguably the most lethal and complete forward of his generation.
But precisely where is where things get interesting. Madrid have a yawning superstar vacancy in the forward line created by Karim Benzema's departure to Al Ittihad. However, you only need to look at Mbappe's performances alongside Benzema for France to see that they are very different players with contrasting and complementary qualities.
Mbappe is a Benzema replacement in terms of star power, but that's about it. This is not a plug-in-and-play signing. Things will have to be reconfigured.
In that respect, Carlo Ancelotti is the ideal coach to bring things together. A flexible and pragmatic tactician, along with being a notable masseur of egos, the veteran Italian will find a way.
He already did in 2023/24, by unleashing Jude Bellingham at the tip of a 4-4-2 diamond midfield. The England international produced an astonishing goal-scoring return on his debut season in La Liga, meaning Los Blancos have not missed having an elite striker (a dutiful tip of the cap to Joselu is appropriate here).
Can Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham play together?
Bellingham has thrived breaking into the penalty area from midfield, with Brazil duo Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes playing as 'split strikers', tacking left and right to create room for the Englishman's lethal incursions.
This hasn't been an entirely self-sacrificing exercise. Vinicius and Rodrygo already had 25 goals between them by the end of February last season. But Mbappe might expect to be a little more centre-stage.
If we cast Rodryo as the odd man out in a three-man attack, then theoretically Vinicius and Mbappe could operate as the front two, with Bellingham still able to carry out his roving brief.
However, this ignores perhaps the biggest issue around how Mbappe fits into the Madrid side. Both he and Vinicius prefer to play off the left of the attack and have become two of the finest players in the world while doing so.
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Can Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr play together?
This feels like a very Real Madrid solution, but perhaps Bellingham, Rodrygo, Mbappe and Vinicius can all play together and thrive. You have to assume that's the plan.
Bellingham has been a revelation since signing a year ago and if Mbappe — their ultimate object of desire — had not come on the market, Madrid could simply have continued building a team around him the former Borussia Dortmund man.
However, it should also be remembered that Bellingham playing as a prolific No. 10 began life as a workaround. The 21-year-old has played the majority of his career for club and country in deeper midfield positions. Indeed, the story behind him wearing squad number 22 at Birmingham City and Dortmund is that youth coaches at Birmingham told Bellingham he could be a complete player capable of operating in defensive midfield (No. 4), as a box-to-box player (No.8) and behind the striker (No. 10).
Once Mbappe is in harness at the Bernabeu, it will be time to tap into some of that versatility. Ancelotti can revert to a midfield three, with the long-term vision of Bellingham, Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga being the successors to the retiring Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Casemiro edging a little closer to fruition. Just make sure you factor in the formidable Federico Valverde having his say on all of that.
That leaves Vinicius to remain in his preferred position on the left wing, Rodrygo on the right and Mbappe at centre-forward as the star of the show. It is not the 25-year-old Frenchman's most comfortable position but he's played there enough and can certainly make it his own at Real Madrid.
Additionally, Mbappe's tendency to tack left promises a headache for right-backs as he combines with Vinicius, while still leaving room for Bellingham to make those bursts into the box that he has so enjoyed this term.
Ultimately, these will all be very nice problems for Madrid and Ancelotti to navigate once the next Galactico comes to town.