Mbappé vs Arbeloa: Something Is Not Right at Real Madrid

Kylian Mbappé and former Real Madrid boss Álvaro Arbeloa spent the final weeks of the 2025/26 season contradicting each other in public. That rift became one piece of a much bigger dressing room breakdown, one that ended with Arbeloa’s exit and José Mourinho walking back through the door at the Santiago Bernabéu.

The disagreement

After being left out of the Real Oviedo win in May, Mbappé told reporters exactly where he stood.

“The coach told me I’m the fourth striker in the squad behind Mastantuono, Vini and Gonzalo,” Mbappé said. “I accept it. I was ready to start, it was his decision.”

Arbeloa denied saying it outright.

“I don’t have four strikers, and I haven’t told anything like that to Mbappé,” Arbeloa responded. “He probably didn’t understand me.”

One version says it happened. The other says it didn’t. Both statements came from press conferences within days of each other.

A rough personal stretch

Mbappé’s season had already been difficult before this exchange:

• Left out of the squad entirely for El Clásico, a match Real Madrid lost 2-0 to Barcelona
• That result handed Barcelona the La Liga title, the first time in 94 years the league had been decided by a Clásico
• Managed a hamstring issue that limited his minutes in the closing weeks
• Drew boos from sections of the Bernabéu crowd during a difficult run of results

His response stayed measured throughout. “Boos from the fans, it’s normal,” he said. “When you don’t win, it’s normal.”

It wasn’t just Mbappé

Reports through May described a squad fracturing on multiple fronts, not just around one striker. Among the incidents:

• Álvaro Carreras and Antonio Rüdiger reportedly clashed physically at the training ground
• Aurélien Tchouaméni and Fede Valverde were involved in a separate altercation
• Dani Carvajal, Dani Ceballos and Raúl Asencio were all reported to have fallen out with Arbeloa directly
• Spanish outlet Marca reported as many as six players were no longer on speaking terms with their head coach

Arbeloa didn’t back down from the pressure at the time. “As long as I’m in this chair, I decide who plays,” he said. “I don’t care what their names are.”

That stance became harder to defend as the losses piled up.

The fallout

Real Madrid finished the season without a major trophy for the second year running. Florentino Pérez won re-election as club president on June 7, and Arbeloa’s departure was confirmed two days later.

Mourinho was already the leading candidate before the ink dried. His return became official within 48 hours of Arbeloa leaving, on a three-year contract. It marks his second spell in charge of the club, thirteen years after his first ended in 2013.

He left Benfica to take the job, with the Portuguese club moving quickly to appoint Marco Silva as his replacement.

Where Mbappé stands now

Through all of it, Mbappé never publicly pushed to leave. His frustration showed up in smaller comments instead.

“I prefer speaking here, with my own mouth,” he said at one point, a pointed remark about how information was being handled inside the club.

Whether that relationship resets under a new coach is the real story heading into next season. Mourinho built his first Real Madrid spell on getting the most out of a talented, occasionally fractious squad. He’ll need to do it again, starting with mending a dressing room that spent the spring at war with itself.