Kylian Mbappe next? 5 Real Madrid icons who bounced back from a slow start
Kylian Mbappe hasn’t exactly made an ideal start after his long-awaited dream move to Real Madrid. But Florentino Perez’s latest Galactico signing can take inspiration from some all-time club icons that started off slow at The Bernabeu.
The French World Cup winner has been pilloried in parts of the notoriously savage Spanish football press after his poor showing in Madrid’s 2-0 defeat away to Liverpool, while he didn’t fare much better in their recent heavy defeat to hated rivals Barcelona.
But you’d be daft to write Mbappe off. There’s every chance that he’ll eventually come good in the Spanish capital – just look at this lot.
Zinedine Zidane
“The same thing happened to me, yes, but I was very calm,” Zidane told reporters back in 2019, in reference to star signing Eden Hazard.
“I knew that things would work out over time. It was worse when I went to Italy because there I was three months late [in adapting]. The same with Hazard, I know that he will triumph and will begin to move forward.”
That never came to pass with Hazard, but there’s no questioning Zizou’s legacy.
Karim Benzema
Second in Real Madrid’s all-time top goalscorers list, there can be no questioning Benzema’s status at The Bernabeu.
For years he played the supporting role to Cristiano Ronaldo – the only man with more goals for the club – to perfection and then enjoyed a new lease of life as the club’s main man in his mid-thirties.
Given that, it’s all too easy to forget now that Benzema’s debut season in Spain was distinctly ordinary. The €35million fee paid to Lyon was a record for French football but he struggled to justify the outlay initially, notching just nine goals and six assists in 2009-10.
Mbappe has matched that goal tally already and it’s only November. Some perspective.
Luka Modric
Modric’s start to life in Madrid was so underwhelming that he was once voted La Liga’s worst signing of the season.
Imagine that.
READ: Remembering when Luka Modric was voted La Liga’s worst signing
Casemiro
This is a bit of a funny one. The Brazilian originally signed in 2013, developed his game in the youth ranks and with a place on the fringes of the squad before really kicking on whilst on loan away at Porto. So far, so good.
We’re classing Casemiro’s 2015 return as his second signing, given that Madrid officially exercised a buy-back clause for his return from Porto. He subsequently spent the first half of that season in and out of the team, failing to do a great deal of note, as Los Blancos struggled in Rafael Benitez’s short and inauspicious tenure.
Casemiro was spared the indignity of suffering the infamous 4-0 defeat to Barcelona, a result that ultimately doomed Benitez. He eventually kicked on to prove himself an indispensable cog at the heart of Zinedine Zidane’s midfield and the campaign ended with him playing all 120 minutes in their Champions League final victory over Atletico Madrid.
The era-defining midfielder went on to start the following two finals as Zizou’s side completed a historic three-peat.
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David Beckham
“If he comes, where’s he going to play? We already have Luis Figo,” Roberto Carlos told FourFourTwo a few months before Beckham arrived at The Bernabeu. Awkward. Remind you of anything?
In fairness, Beckham’s immediate start to life in Madrid was actually not bad at all. Former Manchester United assistant Carlos Queiroz appeared to have masterminded a system that fit both Beckham and Figo in.
He scored on his La Liga debut and had notched three of his trademark free-kicks in his first 16 appearances as a Galactico, with Madrid topping the table come Christmas midway through his debut 2003-04 campaign.
But the wheels spectacularly came off as the season progressed, with a 2-1 loss to Barcelona kicking off an unthinkable run of five successive La Liga defeats to end the campaign.
Beckham started all but the last of those, suspended after receiving a straight red in a shock 2-1 defeat to Real Murcia. Madrid failed to win any major silverware and finished fourth; their lowest placing of the last 24 years.
Their issues were less about Beckham’s individual flaws and more about what his signing symbolised; one Galactico too many and a lack of cohesive balance following the sale of midfield lynchpin Claude Makelele to Chelsea. With the decidedly less handsome Ronaldinho, Barcelona went on to dominate, winning back-to-back La Liga titles as well as the Champions League in 2005-06.
But his four-year stint at The Bernabeu eventually had a happy ending. Fabio Capello returned and led them to the La Liga title. It wasn’t all plain sailing; he struggled for minutes in the first half of the season and had been publically lambasted by club president Ramon Calderon for his decision to sign for LA Galaxy, but he eventually played a decisive role in the run-in.
“Given everything I’d been through that season, winning the league felt as sweet as anything I had achieved,” recalled Beckham. “To become a champion of Spain was what I’d dreamt of when I joined the club. It was the perfect way to say goodbye.”