Mbappe rejoined Real Madrid’s group training at Valdebebas earlier this week, less than three weeks after France’s fourth-place finish at the World Cup wrapped up his summer.
He came back holding the tournament’s Golden Boot: ten goals, and the first player since Gerd Muller to reach double figures at a single World Cup finals.
He also came back having already gone on record about what he actually wanted.
On July 23, days after France’s 6-4 defeat to England in the bronze final, Mbappe posted an open letter on Instagram thanking supporters and reflecting on the tournament.
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“I’m proud to have won the Golden Boot, but it would have meant so much more if it had come alongside the trophy.”
That is the sentence Mourinho will want him to carry into Valdebebas.
Mourinho’s rebuild is 17 days from a first whistle
Real Madrid confirmed Mourinho as head coach on June 11, handing the 63-year-old a three-year contract that runs until June 30, 2029.
He arrived at Valdebebas on July 13 for the start of preseason, thirteen years after his last stint in the Real Madrid dugout.
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The job in front of him is not subtle. The 2025/26 season ended without a single trophy after Xabi Alonso was sacked in January and Alvaro Arbeloa took over as head coach.
Mbappe, according to Madrid Universal, still finished on 25 La Liga goals and 15 in the Champions League. Real Madrid’s only reliably lethal finisher, and nothing on the wall to show for it.
Preseason with half a squad
Vinicius Jr returned to training on August 3, Mbappe within days, and Jude Bellingham with the club’s other World Cup returners are expected back in time for the closing friendlies against Deportivo and Schalke.
Mourinho’s preseason friendly against Fiorentina in Austria on August 1 ended 2-2, a snapshot of a side still being pieced together.
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Espanyol first, Real Sociedad a Wednesday later
Real Madrid’s La Liga 2026/27 campaign begins away to Espanyol at the RCDE Stadium on Saturday, August 22, a matchday-two fixture played first because matchday one, at home to Real Sociedad, has been pushed back to August 26 at the Bernabeu to give the World Cup finalists more recovery time.
That leaves Mourinho with three more friendlies, Ferencvaros on August 8, Deportivo on August 12 and Schalke on August 16, and just over two weeks to fold Mbappe, Bellingham and the rest of the returning group into a team that has trained all summer without them.
The gap between what Mbappe wants to win and what Mourinho has had time to build is the story of the next fortnight. Espanyol will be the first place the answer starts to show.
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