Kylian Mbappe - From Ronaldo fan to Real Madrid star

We've all seen that picture. Kylian Mbappe, 14 years old, poses on his bed for the camera, which opens the angle to show a mosaic of photographs of Cristiano Ronaldo. All of them, except for a few exceptions in Portugal, with Real Madrid. Showing off the Golden Boot, smashing an opponent in the Madrid derby, posing in an advertising campaign... Posters, magazine clippings and even a bust of the Portuguese. Maybe he dreamed of being like him, right?

That boy raised in Bondy, one of the most underprivileged suburbs of the gigantic metropolis of Paris, saw himself outrunning Marscherano and Puyol, beating Victor Valdes and silencing the Camp Nou in a 'Clásico'. "Calm down, calm down, here I am". Flying in at Mestalla to break the chains of a self-conscious Real Madrid and plant the seed of a new winning era. Breaking the record for most goals in a single Champions League to lift the coveted “La Decima”. Kylian had already experienced all of this on television and for him, for the moment, it was just a desire to repeat the feats of his idol.

A little more than a decade later, that boy is leaving the dream behind and turning it into a tangible reality. On Saturday, he is in the spotlight ahead of the Copa del Rey final. He has, once again, the example of his idol. As we said, in 2011, that extra-time header from Cristiano Ronaldo freed Real Madrid from the grip of Pep Guardiola. They had not yet been able to get their teeth into that iconic Barca, against whom they had fallen to their knees three times - including the 5-0 defeat - and could only manage a draw from the penalty spot. Kylian has faced the eternal rivals twice and both times he has come out on the losing side: 0-4 in La Liga and 2-5 in the Spanish Super Cup.

Breaking the stranglehold of Flick's Barca is a must. Moreover, if the Frenchman scores at La Cartuja he will have scored more goals than Cristiano Ronaldo himself in his debut season with Real Madrid. On 29th March he equalled the Portuguese's 33 goals in the 2009-10 campaign with his brace against Leganes and has since challenged to surpass him, but has stalled with zero goals and one red card in his last five games. This 'Clasico' is the best possible place to break the deadlock... or to make the hole deeper.

To be like Cristiano, not to be Cristiano

There is a great little detail in that statistic, and that is that Cristiano scored his 33 debut goals in 35 games, while the Frenchman is now over 50. It should not be forgotten that CR9 was out of action for two months, between 30th September and 25th November, due to a right ankle injury that he aggravated while playing for Portugal. And that before that he had nine goals in his first seven games in white.

We dare not compare. Even so, Mbappe would still have a few weeks left to match Ivan Zamorano's record of 37 in a debut in 1992-93. Improving on his benchmark would be the best example of the duality that has governed his sporting life: he always wanted to be like the man from Madeira, but over time he understood the key to success. To be like him, not to be him. The former is simply impossible.

You only have to go back to New Year's Eve 2018. After the flashes of his debut at Monaco and his signing for Paris Saint-Germain, already established in the top flight, the striker boasted that he was who he wanted to be. He did so by uploading to his social networks a transformed version of the famous photograph from which we started this text. Instead of the images of the No 7, Mbappe showed himself. Holding up the World Cup, the Ligue 1 trophy alongside Neymar, his Time magazine cover... He was following his example, not imitating him.

The Copa del Rey final as the beginning of his own history

Notice that in the end his football was more like that of Ronaldo Nazario than that of Cristiano, even though his face was the last and first thing he saw every day. But by being himself he was aiming to get to the same place. And although it may seem that things happen overnight, after a long process and a lot of showing off, Kylian Mbappe was able to set foot in the Santiago Bernabeu as a local. He took the longest route on repeated occasions and seemed to be shut out by them, mind you. But it was predestined that he would play for Real Madrid.

Mbappe imitated him with that ‘un, dos, tres, hala Madrid!’ at a crowded presentation alongside Florentino Perez. But weeks earlier, interviewed in the run-up to the European Championship, he made his intention clear: "I now have the opportunity to start my dream of playing for Real Madrid. Cristiano is unique, there is only one. I want to write a great page in the club's history, but it will be different to his.

On Saturday, he can put in black and white his first heroics at Real Madrid in a book that until now has been more about defeats than victories. His greatest nights so far can be summed up in his debut with a goal and a title in Warsaw, the first leg against City and the hat trick in the second leg. The 'Clasico' of the his disallowed goals, the 2-5, the entire tie against Arsenal or the sending off against Deportivo Alaves that could have (and perhaps should have) cost him this final are his main fiascos. In Sevilla he can balance the scales and take a step forward in his main desire: to write his own history, one of the good ones, and be Kylian Mbappe.