According to Spanish media, new striker Kylian Mbappe will not be given priority to take 11m kicks at Real Madrid as he was given at his old club PSG.
Mbappe will not be given priority to take 11m kicks at Real Madrid
After a grand unveiling ceremony witnessed by more than 80,000 fans at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on the afternoon of July 16, Mbappe got to know the Real coaching staff and some teammates at Los Blancos, before going on vacation with his family in the US.
The French national team captain did not participate in any pre-season friendly matches with the Spanish Royal team.
Real’s next match is the European Super Cup against Atalanta at the Kazimierz Gorski National Stadium in Warsaw (Poland) on August 14.
In his latest press conference, coach Ancelotti revealed that he really expected Mbappe to participate in this match.
During his downtime, Mbappe has been working hard to get fit and ready for battle. Before the match in Warsaw, Marca has just revealed information related to Mbappe.
Accordingly, the 25-year-old striker will not be given priority to take penalties in the 2024/25 season at Real Madrid.
Before joining Real, Mbappe was a player who had the right to take 11m kicks at PSG. In Ligue 1 2023/24 alone, the former AS Monaco striker has successfully taken 6 penalties.
Coach Ancelotti has appointed Vinicius to take Real Madrid’s 11m penalty next season. Last season, the Brazilian international was the star penalty taker for Los Blancos.
Without the privilege of taking penalties, Mbappe will be the number 1 choice in taking Real’s direct free kicks – a privilege once given to superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
The problem is that Mabappe has never scored a goal from a direct free kick in his entire career. Meanwhile, Ronaldo is more complete than Mbappe. At that time, CR7 was already a great free kick taker and had scored many great goals for MU. Maybe, Ancelotti wanted to create another “powerful weapon” for Mbappe.
Also regarding Real’s choice for set pieces, according to Marca, next season Arda Guler will be given priority to take corner kicks.
Last season, this role belonged to the legendary Toni Kroos. Ancelotti must have had his reasons for giving Guler the role. Guler somewhat demonstrated his ability to take corner kicks by passing to Nicolas Paz to head home in Real’s defeat to Barca two days ago in the US.
Previously, the Turkish international showed his ability to take corner kicks at EURO 2024 when he assisted Demiral to score in the win over Austria. Behind Arda Guler in the Top players prioritized to take corner kicks are Modric, Valverde, Bellingham and Alaba.