Of course, it wouldn’t be Real Madrid if a disastrous season didn’t unfold against the backdrop of some serious off-field drama, and Mbappe found himself at the centre of that on more than one occasion, with the fans even turning on him in the final throes.
According to The Athletic, the 27-year-old was involved in an ugly confrontation with a member of the club’s backroom staff before the meeting with Real Betis in late April, where he aimed a volley of abuse at a coach who called him offside in a training match – a reflection of the overall toxic atmosphere that engulfed the club during the futile run-in.
Mbappe then suffered a hamstring injury in the clash with Betis, but rather than recover at Madrid’s Valdebebas training base, he used some time off to go on holiday to Sardinia with his girlfriend, high-profile Spanish actor Ester Exposito, and was pictured on a yacht around the same time his club were facing Espanyol in La Liga.
It was a decision that drew criticism internally and from the outside. While Arbeloa defended his player, an ‘Mbappe out’ online petition subsequently went viral, garnering some 12 million signatures in less than 24 hours and eventually passing 70 million. The striker then missed the Clasico where Real handed Barca the title as he was still deemed unfit, excusing himself from training with the would-be substitutes due to ‘discomfort’, before returning to the bench against Real Oviedo in mid-May.
However, that was something Mbappe himself took issue with; unusually stopping to speak to the media after coming on as a substitute, the forward pointedly said he was “100 percent” and claimed he hadn’t started the game because Arbeloa had told him he had been demoted to ‘fourth-choice striker’. It was later reported that the Frenchman’s frustration stemmed from Alonso’s sacking.
Arbeloa was forced to refute those claims shortly afterwards, saying in his press conference after being bombarded with questions about Mbappe’s comments: “He must have misunderstood me, at no point did I say he was the fourth-choice striker. A player who four days ago wasn’t even fit enough to make the bench for a match shouldn’t have started today.”
The Athletic reported at the time that there was “growing disappointment” with Mbappe, “from the dressing room to the board”. In response to the widespread criticism, his camp said in a statement: “A portion of the criticism is based on an over-interpretation of elements related to a recovery period strictly supervised by the club, and does not reflect the reality of Kylian’s commitment and daily work for the team.”
