While the arrival of Kylian Mbappé at Real Madrid was officialized earlier this week, Madrid fans will have to wait a bit longer before they can put his name on their jerseys.
“Mbappé 9” in the streets of Madrid will have to wait. The player will be at Real Madrid on July 1st. But in the meantime, he is still under contract with PSG until June 30th.
The Spanish club cannot therefore market products with the player’s image until his contract with PSG is terminated, which will be the case on June 30th. “We cannot print jerseys with the name of a player who belongs to another club,” Real Madrid told AFP.
Which number for Mbappé?
And the case of Mbappé’s jersey number will last for a few months. Because the player should only wear the number 9 for one season. He will not be able to recover his number 7 from PSG, already assigned to Vinicius Junior. The number 10, which he wears in the French national team, is also unavailable, as it belongs to Luka Modric.
Mbappé should therefore inherit the number 9, vacant since the departure of Karim Benzema to Saudi Arabia a year ago. This would allow him to follow in the footsteps of his idol Cristiano Ronaldo, who wore the number 9 during his first season at Real Madrid (2009-2010). Mbappé should then recover the 10, when Luka Modric’s contract expires… if the Croatian does not extend for another season.
