Getting Real Madrid's No. 10 jersey is taking Mbappé to the next level

Tuesday - 26/08/2025 06:03

Kylian Mbappé's goal-scoring prowess has never been in question, but Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso has his No. 10 doing the dirty work now, too.

Graham HunterAug 26, 2025, 01:27 PM
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When Kylian Mbappé approached Real Madrid in July to tell them he wanted to inherit Luka Modric's No. 10 shirt, both club president Florentino Pérez and Adidas licked their lips lasciviously.

It was a marketing and sales windfall. Dollar signs flashed. But Xabi Alonso's reaction was slightly different, slightly more nuanced.

He told his superstar, with whom he's forging a promising new relationship, that the shirt number came with responsibilities -- not just romanticism and commercialism. Alonso warned Mbappé that Modric had worn the shirt with dignity for the past seven years not only because of his performances on the pitch, but because of his attitude, behavior, dignity and those extras he gave to the club, the squad and the team.

"Do you still want it?" was the implicit challenge.

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Mbappé's response since swapping out his one-season No. 9 shirt has been impeccable. On the pitch, his third goal in two LaLiga matches -- a brace in the 3-0 win at Real Oviedo on Sunday -- is business as usual for the 26-year-old who, with 44 goals last season, established himself as the most prolific debutant in Madrid's long, stellar history. (Mbappé also hit two in Madrid's only preseason friendly, for what it's worth.)

Commercially, too, things have combusted precisely as Adidas and President Pérez expected. Fermín de la Calle, a reputable writer for Diario Sport, reported (citing Euromericas Sport Marketing) that 345,000 Mbappé No. 10 shirts were immediately snapped up, making millions for Adidas and vastly underlining Real Madrid's value as a client for the German company.

Coach and player have both sung from the same hymn sheet on the subject. After beating Osasuna, Alonso admitted, unable to hide a really satisfied grin: "After a terrific first year at Madrid, where he did so many good things, I think Kylian wants more. Whether that's because of his change of shirt number or simply his hunger and ambition to win ... I'm clear that he thinks he can perform even better -- individually, for the collective and inspire those around him. If his choice of the No. 10 helps all that happen, fantastic. He's a player who generates different moves but the thing is how often they are decisive"

The Frenchman's take: "The No. 10 carries huge importance at this club, but I think the No. 9 did, too. I'm feeling great right now, but the most important thing is helping my team offensively and defensively. Things will follow from that because with this good spirit they were showing, we're going to keep winning games."

And, really, there lies the acid test.

Not only does Kylian Mbappé have three goals in two games this season, he's also doing the dirty work for Real Madrid. Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Mbappé has always been a synonym for goal scoring. Previous coaches, most notably Luis Enrique at Paris Saint-Germain, have tried to add the final element to his repertoire. The part that makes you truly great, the part that makes you indomitable, the part that often the showy players don't want to know about. The ugly work, the pressing, the tracking back -- the blue-collar stuff that aristocrats have always sneered at.

I hope that you regular readers of this ESPN FC column are as realistic, and sometimes cynical, as me. So let's not go overboard.

Up in Oviedo on Sunday, we didn't suddenly witness an all-in performance from Mbappé in which he sweated through the club badge chasing and harassing every home player, snarling into tackles and suddenly morphing into the complete all-round footballer.

He's waited eight years to wear the No. 10 shirt at club level. He was allowed to do that only twice for AS Monaco, and then had to wait for Neymar to move at PSG before it became available in the French capital, but that was then gifted to Ousmane Dembélé.

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Mbappé has worn the No. 10 for France since just before he won the World Cup with Les Bleus in 2018 as a 19-year-old. Like Alonso said, whether it is for personal hunger or the impact and importance of taking Modric's number, it was interesting on Sunday to see certain extra aspects of his performance. For example, he tracked back at one defensive corner situation, made a brilliant tackling interception and launched a dangerous counterattack.

Then, when Vinícius Júnior -- who had been left on the bench, causing much controversy and speculation -- came on and created the assist for Mbappé's second goal, the Brazilian let rip his fury in word and gesture, and looked about to get himself into trouble again until Mbappé sprinted over to cover his teammate's mouth and smother him in an embrace.

It was most certainly a gesture of keeping his pal out of trouble as much as celebrating the glorious assist that Vinícius had served him.

Also, when the cameras weren't focused on him, and I would guess few noticed, Mbappé at halftime deliberately went out of his way to find a young, blue-shirted fan by the side of the player tunnel and handed him this much-cherished No. 10 shirt. The first time he'd ever worn it on the road for Los Blancos and he sought out not a young Madridista, not the cameras, but just a little kid who didn't even have one of these stupid "Please give me your jersey!" banners and handed the youngster a souvenir he'll never, ever forget.

Another nice touch, at the end, was when Antonio Rüdiger refused to swap shirts with Kwasi Sibo, the Ghana international, and told him, "I'll happily give you my jersey in our home game if you come to the Bernabéu."

Mbappé, seeing this, even though he had been substituted off earlier and had changed into his training top, found his discarded second-half shirt and gave that to the disappointed Oviedo midfielder instead. These are simply nice gestures, not necessarily the stuff of champions, not the mental toughness or competitive urgency that lift you individual and team trophies. But nevertheless, more evidence of what Mbappé is like as a person.

Does Alonso now believe in Rodrygo?

Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens discuss whether they think Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso now believes in Rodrygo as he started in their 3-0 win against Oviedo.

"You can see Kylian's on form, you can see he's engaged in what we're trying to do, his behavior and his desire to excel is infectious for the rest of the team," Alonso said after Madrid's second Mbappé-inspired victory. "Personally I love it when I see him do those tracking runs, when he changes his position a little and he's helping us defend from the front.

"Because we know he's going to score goals, but when tracks and helps us have those distances where we are all much closer to each other, then we work better with and without the ball."

Now the competition up front is pretty ferocious. Rodrygo, a shock inclusion, and starting for only the second time since Alonso took over, did well enough before tiring. Franco Mastuantono, the apple of Alonso's eye, made his full debut mere days after turning 18 and played bullishly. He'll start often. Gonzalo García, prolific during the Club World Cup came on again, looking predatory.

And what of Vinícius? Dropped, grinning away with Éder Militão on the bench for most of the first half, booked for diving three minutes before robbing Haissem Hassan of the ball and gifting Mbappé his second goal, then making angry gestures, author of an ugly challenge that could (should?) have resulted in his second booking, gesturing to the home crowd that they were going straight back to the second division, and then scorer of the delightfully taken 3-0 goal.

I'll tell you this much: Mbappé rightfully earned the "Good lad, well done" praise from his coach, but the bad boy, as ever, is the one to whom everyone's attention, frustration, glee, admonition and guilty feelings of enjoyment are still drawn.