SportsMoneyReal Madrid Coach Alonso Warned Mbappe Before PSG ClashByTom Sanderson, Senior Contributor. Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights.
Tom Sanderson is a Barcelona-based writer who covers Spanish football.
AuthorJul 08, 2025, 05:15am EDTJul 08, 2025, 06:17am EDTReal Madrid coach Xabi Alonso has been sent a warning his striker Kylian Mbappe ahead of the.
More Frenchman meeting his former Paris Saint-Germain in the World Cup semifinals on Wednesday.
Getty Images Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso has been sent a warning his striker Kylian Mbappe ahead of the Frenchman meeting his former Paris Saint-Germain in the World Cup semifinals on Wednesday.
Mbappe is set to play against his employers from 2017 to 2024 for the first time since completing a free transfer last summer which took him from his country’s capital to Spain’s counterpart.
Though Madrid his maiden term at the Bernabeu without major silverware, as FC Barcelona scooped a domestic treble and Arsenal knocked Los Blancos out of the Champions League, Mbappe still sealed the Golden Boot as Europe’s top scorer.
On the other hand, a team that recovered from life after Mbappe under Luis Enrique won its first ever Champions League crown that Mbappe, plus the s of Neymar and Lionel Messi, failed to der to the Parc des Princes in PSG’s ‘bling bling era’.
Getting to the final and then winning the World Cup would be a major statement for either side without mentioning its mammoth prize money, and Madrid and PSG now stand in each other’s way of achieving that.
Alono has a huge decision to make on whether to start Mbappe, who is arguably his star player but has only just recovered from a bout of gastritis, or breakout academy duct Gonzalo Garcia who has scored a number of important goals at the tournament against the s of Juventus and Borussia Dortmund in the knockout rounds.
MORE FOR YOU On Spanish radio, and the hugely El Partidazo de Cope gram, Manolo Lama advised Alonso to go for Mbappe out of fear of annoying the World Cup winner through a snub in Gonzalo Garcia’s favor.
“The issue for which I think Mbappe will play is the ing: you are going to play against PSG, who owe €50 million to Mbappe.
He wants to [start] … If you, for whatever reason, don’t put him in the starting line-up, I think Mbappe will be p*ssed off and for a long time.
While Gonzalo, if you don’t put him in, people will say that it’s unfair and that you’re not right," Lama explained.
Real Madrid boss Alonso will be judged for whatever he does For Real Madrid manager Alonso, it’s a case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
He’ll be criticized no matter whether he goes for Mbappe or Gonzalo Garcia, and regardless of whether his team advances to the World Cup final to face either Fluminense or Chelsea.
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