Cristiano Ronaldo has urged the Real Madrid fans to look after their new superstar signing – Kylian Mbappe, who has been playing as a number 9 for them this season. Mbappe, who had a rough start to his time at Madrid, has started to click as their new striker, a position he didn’t play for his last club, Paris-Saint Germain.
Mbappe has finally picked his form at Madrid and recently won the La Liga Player of the Month award for January 2025. The Frenchman wasn’t quite comfortable as a striker when he joined Madrid, as he also missed a couple of penalties against Liverpool and Athletic Bilbao. Meanwhile, he recently netted a hat-trick against Real Valladolid to prove that the adaption period is over for him, and he is ready to take over the La Liga.
Ronaldo, the highest goal-scorer in Madrid’s history, lavished praise on Mbappe and urged the fans to show some love towards him.
“Look after the lad,” Ronaldo said in an extract from an interview with Spanish TV show El Chiringuito, due to be broadcast in full on Monday. “The fans need to look after him. He’s very good. The club have to help to protect him, I have no doubt he’ll bring a lot of joy to Madrid fans,” he added.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner asserted that his admiration for Mbappe is not because of the Frenchman idolosing him since his childhood.
“I love [Mbappé], not just because of his story as a kid, how he loved Cristiano, I was his idol,” Ronaldo said. “I think he’s a top player,” he added.
Ronaldo, who also donned the number 9 jersey at Madrid in his initial season, suggested that playing as a striker isn’t easy for a player when he hasn’t played there in the past.
“It’s complicated, because he doesn’t know how to play as a forward in my opinion — or rather, it’s not that he doesn’t know, but it isn’t his position,” Ronaldo said.
The Al-Nassr star compared Mbappe’s current situation to his and said if he’d show the former PSG star how to play as number 9 if he was still at Madrid.
“If I was at Madrid, I’d show him how to play as a number nine. I wasn’t a forward. I got used to it, but I was a winger. People forget that. I was a forward, but not a typical forward. I think [Mbappé] shouldn’t be a typical forward, he should do things his way,” he concluded.
