Barcelona President Doubles Down on Kylian Mbappe’s Problem at Real Madrid
- Barcelona president Joan Laporta repeated his 2024 warning that Real Madrid's squad of stars would struggle to function as a unit
- Laporta had warned that Mbappe and Vinicius Jr sharing the same position would cause wage tensions inside the dressing room
- The prediction appeared to gain weight after Vinicius Jr reportedly used Mbappe's salary as a benchmark in his contract negotiations
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FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta has restated his 2024 warning about Kylian Mbappe's arrival at Real Madrid, insisting that a squad packed with individual talent means little without genuine team spirit.
When Mbappe joined Real Madrid on a free transfer in the summer of 2024 after running down his Paris Saint-Germain contract, Laporta was among the first to sound a note of caution.
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PSG had previously rejected a €160 million offer for the France captain roughly 18 months before he eventually left for nothing.
At the time, Laporta suggested the signing would not be the "gift" Florentino Perez expected and would create friction inside the dressing room, particularly between Mbappe and Vinicius Jr, who operate in similar positions on the pitch.
“They have a problem there... They will have to sell a player because the two of them don't occupy the same position. And when it comes to wages, this will certainly cause friction in the dressing room,” Laporta said, as reported by Goal.
Laporta doubles down about Mbappe
Those concerns appeared to have some grounding when Vinicius Jr used Mbappe's wage package as a reference point during his own contract talks at the club, a situation that threatened to see the Brazilian leave before a resolution was eventually reached.
Laporta has now returned to that original assessment, standing by every word of it.
"Yes, I said it. More than one rooster in the same henhouse can never work. The priority in football is the team and team spirit. If you don't have that, the project doesn't work," he said via Football Ecology.
Mbappe's record at Real Madrid
The criticism does not stem from a lack of individual output. Mbappe is just three goals short of reaching 100 in Real Madrid colours, a milestone that underlines his consistent contribution at the club.
Questions persist, however, over whether his presence has made Madrid a more cohesive and effective team, or whether the concentration of high-profile names has complicated squad dynamics.
Laporta's remarks reflect a broader philosophy at Barcelona, where the club has positioned team identity as central to its project, even as it pursues its own high-profile signings.
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