The words travelled to Clairefontaine as rapidly as they were dispensed on a podcast in Spain. "We hope that Kylian Mbappe will have the same reasoning as Jude Bellingham," Jose Manuel Otero, a member of Real Madrid's board of directors, told Remontada Blanca.
The subject, as it has been for three years, was the France captain's future. If that talking point feels stale, the framing with Bellingham offers a fresh slant that Real are happy to play on and which has pierced 'Team Mbappe'.
The excellence, rocketing status, and Ballon d'Or priming of the England midfielder is not just headline news in the Spanish capital and England.
Telefoot, the leading French football broadcaster and rights holder for the national team's games, dedicated a show to Bellingham titled 'La Nouvelle Star,' with Zinedine Zidane, Eduardo Camavinga and Aurélien Tchouameni all sharing their thoughts on "le joueur phare de ce debut de saison" - the flagship player at the start to the season.
That segment on the talent "hors norme" - extraordinary - is sharply contrasted by another programme offering analysis into Mbappe's stuttering campaign, which was the major question put to France coach Didier Deschamps ahead of the European Qualifier against the Netherlands.
"With everything Kylian had during this summer, he has the right to have, in the hellish pace of matches, a period when he is a little less good and a little less effective," he replied.
In France, they talk of two versions of Mbappe: the dynamic force before his decision not to activate his one-year option with PSG, leading to a now partially resolved toxic dispute with the club, and a jaded version afterwards.
In Madrid, they read the situation differently and trace the forward's stumble back to
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