Kylian Mbappe vs PSG: Real Madrid's star striker must make a statement in Club World Cup semi-final or risk remaining a Parisian punchline

Credit to Mbappe, he reacted with real magnanimity to PSG's Champions League triumph. While others were mocking the forward over the timing of his move to Madrid, he was congratulating his former side on their historic achievement.

"The big day has finally arrived," Mbappe wrote on Instagram immediately after PSG's 5-0 win over Inter at the Allianz Arena on May 31. Nonetheless, much was always going to be made of the fact that his departure played a pivotal part in PSG reaching the Promised Land.

Mbappe had made it his "mission" to help his hometown club win a first European Cup. It was the main reason why the boy from Bondy returned to Paris from Monaco in the summer of 2017. However, for all his goals and assists during his seven-year stint at Parc des Princes, Mbappe and PSG never managed to realise their shared dream, instead suffering one devastating defeat after another in the Champions League knockout stage.

In fact, long before his exit, it had become painfully clear that Mbappe was proving more of a hindrance than a help to PSG's grand plan.

Christophe Dugarry had first flagged Mbappe's potentially problematic behaviour all the way back in 2019, while former PSG sporting director Leonardo warned two years ago that "the time has come for Kylian to go", pointing out that plenty of other clubs had proven that it was possible to win the Champions League without him.

"With his behaviour over the last two years, Mbappe is showing that he's not yet a player capable of really guiding a team," the Brazilian argued in an interview with L'Equipe. "He's a great player, not a leader. It's hard to build a team around him."

Crucially, Luis Enrique concurred. The Spaniard never once blamed Mbappe for PSG's shortcomings in Europe and insisted all along that he was said to see such a popular player depart. However, the coach was also steadfast in his belief that his side didn't need the club's all-time leading goal-scorer to lift trophy Qatari Sports Investments (QSI) craved above all others - and he was right.

With a long overdue shift in recruitment strategy led by Leonardo's successor, Luis Campos, PSG stopped signing superstars and instead began investing their money in promising young players, such as Desire Doue and Joao Neves. The new transfer policy paid off spectacularly - and immediately - with PSG completing a treble with a record-breaking rout of Inter in Munich.

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Of course, PSG are now perfectly primed to turn that glorious treble into an unprecedented quadruple - and doing so would only strengthen the suspicion that a club once considered football's biggest 'bottlers' are about to embark on an era of sustained success.

"We are ambitious," Luis Enrique said after watching his side dominate and dismantle Inter. "We are going to continue to conquer the football world."

They've certainly got every chance of doing so. As well as being able to rely on the enormous financial support of the state of Qatar, which enabled them to add Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to an already stellar attack during the January transfer window, PSG also had had the youngest squad in the last 16 of last season's Champions League, with an average age of 23.6.

Consequently, there's every chance that Luis Enrique's wonderfully balanced side is only going to get better in the coming months and years - which is a terrifying thought for not only Madrid, but also Mbappe.

It was put to Mbappe during a press conference on June 7 that he'd left PSG too soon. "No," he replied, "my story was over, it had to end. There was no bitterness, I'd reached the end of my tether. I gave everything I had. But fate wanted them to win it without me."

"I was happy [for them], they deserved it," he added. "They've been through so many problems, and I've been through that too. I've been through every stage of the Champions League except winning it. But PSG winning the Champions League without me doesn't affect me. It's a good thing. I think we all face challenges in our careers." And this is undoubtedly the most difficult period of Mbappe's.

Madrid plus Mbappe was meant to equal Champions League domination, and yet the 2024 winners were humiliated in the quarter-finals of last season's competition by Arsenal. The attacker has quite correctly pointed out that he's actually played quite well this year, after struggling mentally and physically in the first few months of the season, and Mbappe even ended up winning the European Golden Shoe, proving that while form is temporary, class is permanent.

"Things are not yet perfect," he said after hitting 31 goals in his first 34 Liga games, "but I’m progressing." However, when he says that 2024-25 was a season of "growth" for Madrid, he's way off the mark.

In reality, it was a campaign of worrying regression, one in which they meekly surrounded their European crown, while at the same time being repeatedly battered by Barcelona in domestic competition - which is precisely why Carlo Ancelotti, the most decorated coach in the club's history, was replaced at the helm by Xabi Alonso.

Alonso will obviously be given time to put Madrid back on their perch. As a player, he was revered at Santiago Bernabeu; as a coach, he's already proven himself an extraordinary tactician at Bayer Leverkusen, whom he led to a domestic double without losing a single match.

He will, thus, be given the full backing of Florentino Perez, who will have already been encouraged by some of the things he's seen from Alonso's revamped Real during their unbeaten run to the semi-finals of the Club World Cup.

However, PSG unquestionably represent the first true test of the new regime. The Parisians may have suffered a shock loss to Botafogo in the group stage, but they have also played some utterly scintillating football against the likes of Atletico Madrid, Inter Miami and Bayern Munich. They are, as Mbappe has admitted himself, "the best team in Europe", and thus "the team that everyone wants to beat".

For Mbappe and Madrid, though, PSG are arguably the team they need to beat to ensure that a season of failure ends with at least one meaningful and morale-boosting success.