Kylian Mbappé begins his third season in the Spanish league in a Real Madrid shirt this Saturday evening, when he travels to face Espanyol, amid a high ceiling of expectations placed on the French star by the Spanish press, after he claimed the title of La Liga's top scorer in his first two seasons with the club.
Those expectations stretch well beyond his usual scoring numbers. The Spanish media have set him a historic challenge: winning the "Pichichi" award for a third year running, something no Real Madrid player has managed for around 40 years, their legend Cristiano Ronaldo included.
31 goals then 25: a historic mission awaits
Mbappé, 27, enters his third season in Spain having been the league's top scorer since the day he arrived at Real Madrid.
The French forward took the "Pichichi" award in his first season, 2024-2025, with 31 goals, then retained it the following campaign, 2025-2026, with a tally of 25.
According to Spanish newspaper "AS", the standout challenge facing Mbappé this season is adding a third successive top-scorer title to his record, which would put him on a rare historic list at Real Madrid.
He also sits 14 goals away, across all competitions, from breaking the 100-goal barrier in a Real Madrid shirt.
An achievement not even Cristiano Ronaldo managed
Cristiano Ronaldo won the "Pichichi" award three times in his career, yet he never managed it in three straight seasons. He claimed it back to back only in 2014 and 2015.
Pull off the feat this season and Mbappé would equal the record of Real Madrid legend Hugo Sánchez, the league's top scorer in 1986, 1987 and 1988, becoming the first player from the Royal Club to do so in around four decades.
Sánchez wrote his name in bold letters in Real Madrid's history during the 1980s. The older and most exceptional achievement belongs to Alfredo Di Stéfano, who won the top-scorer title four times in a row in 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959.
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Numbers alone will not be enough
This challenge lands at a time when Mbappé needs more than his scoring rate to stay high. Real Madrid have ended the last two seasons without a major title, through a difficult spell that included disputes inside the dressing room, before the rebuild began with José Mourinho's arrival this summer.
Strong as his numbers were across those first two seasons, the ambitions of the Real Madrid faithful reach beyond individual goals, especially after two campaigns in which the team fell short of the expected haul of titles.
A third "Pichichi" award, then, will be a prominent personal target for Mbappé. It will not be his only challenge in the new season, with the fans expecting a bigger part from him in dragging Real Madrid back onto the winners' podiums.
A start under the microscope against Espanyol
Espanyol provide Mbappé's first test this Saturday evening, a fixture that carries an added twist for the French forward.
He has never scored at Espanyol's stadium. That puts his first appearance of the new season under the gaze of press and fans alike, at the start of a road that could carry him to a historic figure not even Ronaldo managed with Real Madrid.
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