Although Kylian Mbappé’s arrival at Real Madrid was officially announced earlier this week, Madrid supporters will have to wait a bit longer before they can sport his name on their jerseys.
Fans eager to see « Mbappé 9 » in the streets of Madrid will need to be patient. Mbappé will join Real Madrid on July 1st, but until then, he remains under contract with PSG until June 30th.
Thus, the Spanish club cannot market merchandise featuring the player until his contract with PSG ends on June 30th. « We cannot print jerseys with the name of a player who belongs to another club, » Real Madrid told AFP.
Number 9, Then Number 10 for Mbappé
The issue of Mbappé’s jersey number will persist for a few months. The player is expected to wear the number 9 for only one season. He can’t take his PSG number 7, already assigned to Vinicius Junior. The number 10, which he wears for the French national team, is also unavailable as it belongs to Luka Modric.
Mbappé is set to inherit the number 9, vacant since Karim Benzema’s departure 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 is then expected to take over the number 10 once Luka Modric’s contract expires… assuming the Croatian doesn’t extend his stay for another season.
