Antonio Rudiger has officially welcomed Mbappe to Real Madrid – by being a complete nutter
Kylian Mbappe’s much-anticipated transfer to Real Madrid has finally become reality and it got off to the dream start as Los Blancos lifted a sixth UEFA Super Cup.
After years of speculation and build-up, it’s easy to actually have become somewhat numb to the idea. For many, it still doesn’t feel real, even though he’s now officially donned that iconic white jersey for the first time.
Seasons of success at Paris Saint-Germain will never be forgotten, but for now, Mbappe must shelve all current accolades and start again from ground zero in football’s ultimate institution, as he goes on a quest to forge a legacy and finally finish the story.
Sorry Cody Rhodes, you’re not alone on that one.
Football’s ultimate babyface, the gap is there at the top of the mountain for Mbappe to seize, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo fading away and winding down.
Many assume that he’ll simply take the tag of being the best in the world by default, while some actually believe he’s already there.
And he might well be. But you’ve got to earn that title and build on it to stay at the top. If you don’t, all of a sudden you’ll find yourself sharing the limelight with the next generation of talent and shoved out into exile in the Middle East.
Connect the dots yourself on that one.
For Mbappe, though, failure isn’t an option and neither is sharing that spot at the top. Real’s 3-0 win over Atalanta marked day one in his pursuit of immortality and crucially his hunt for the honours that have evaded him thus far, with the biggest club in the world.
And he got off to the perfect start, firing in Real’s second to finish off a neat move started by Jude Bellingham in a brief showcase of just how cold-blooded a killer Mbappe can be inside the penalty box as a poacher.
Peeling off his marker to subtly vanish into thin air, the Frenchman suddenly darted to towards the penalty spot like a flash of lightning and tucked away Bellingham’s inch perfect lay-up. A sign of things to come and a moment of pure, killer instinct.
The icing on the cake, though? Not his link-up with a fellow star, but a very important initiation after scoring by perhaps the most important teammate of all – Antonio Rudiger.
While Mbappe is competing for the title of the best player in the game right now, Rudiger appears to have made it his life mission to be crowned the weirdest. He’s way out in front in that pursuit and made sure his new, French colleague knew that amid the celebrations after his finish.
Mbappé got the Rüdiger treatment 😂
byu/TimothyX7 inrealmadrid
After celebrating a goal he’d have dreamed of to no end the night before in perfect fashion alongside his new attacking teammates, Mbappe is embraced by the squad, before Rudiger arrives on the scene to truly welcome him and blood him in as a Madridista.
In textbook Rudiger fashion, his eyes lock onto Mbappe and his hands immediately begin slapping his poor head as he’s hugged by others, before sliding downstairs to seemingly spank him.
Over and over again.
We cannot keep up with this man and his extremely strange antics, but we never ever want him to change. Ever. The hero football needs.
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The German really is one of a kind, combining elite defending skills with a corner of his brain that appears to be completely detached from reality, which allows him to slip into a bout of bizarre behaviour that cannot be tamed.
Nobody is matching his freak. It’s perhaps why Real have are so successful in recent times and the reason why Mbappe must leave his ego at the door and simply embrace his new colleague’s unhinged nature.
Don’t question it, Kylian. And don’t think it ends there, either.
Rudiger has taken a shining to you and the season is only just getting started. We can’t wait to see what other antics he’s got up his sleeve for 2024-25.
By Mitch Wilks