Real Madrid gives its '10' to Mbappé to stop Barça's 'Laminemania'

Real Madrid has a new '10'. This Wednesday, before the club made the official announcement, Kylian Mbappé announced his new number on his Twitter account, writing the number he will wear from next August, when Xabi Alonso's team debuts in La Liga against Real Oviedo (August 24).

The club will play matchday 1 against Osasuna at home on Tuesday, August 19, but requested LaLiga to postpone the match to have one more week free after the Club World Cup. Although LaLiga has not officially accepted the request, it is likely to agree to reschedule the match.

For Mbappé, this will be the second time he has used the '10' at club level, as he used the '29' at Paris Saint-Germain in his first year and then alternated between the '7', '14' and '17'. After Neymar Jr.'s departure in 2023, Ousmane Dembélé took the Parisian '10'. 

Previously, the Bondy native had worn this number at Monaco before leaving for PSG in the summer of 2017 and in the French national team from 2018. With the Principality side, he also used the '29', '11' and '9', the latter being the number that Real Madrid gave him last summer.

Mbappé receives the '10' with the mission of surpassing Luka Modric

With Luka Modric's departure, the '10' was free and Kylian did not hesitate to ask for it. The Croatian took the number in 2017 after James Rodríguez's loan departure and managed to win three Champions Leagues and a Ballon d'Or with this number on his back.

Before Modric and James, Mesut Özil (2010-2013), Lass Diarrá (2009-10), Wesley Sneijder (2008-09), Robinho (2005-08) and Luis Figo (2000-05) wore the Madrid '10' on their backs so far this century.

In his first season, Mbappé scored 44 goals and provided 5 assists in 59 official matches with the 'merengues'. Although he won the Golden Boot thanks to his 31 goals in LaLiga, he could not prevent the 'nothing-winning' season of the 'blancos' in 2025, where they accumulated heavy defeats against FC Barcelona and other 'heavyweights' in Europe, such as Arsenal and PSG.

Madrid seeks to stop Barça's 'Laminemania' and their new '10'

In addition, the appointment of Kylian Mbappé as the new '10' 'merengue' has a clear marketing purpose: to try to match the sales of the new Barça shirt with the '10' of Lamine Yamal.

The club expects initial revenues in the order of 10 million euros thanks to the new number of the Mataró native, who swept sales during the first hours in which the shirt was available in physical and online stores.

Related

Lamine Yamal's '10', a gold mine for Barça

Nike sold out the first global batch with 70,000 units in a few hours, while some stores in Barcelona recorded more than 400 shirts sold per day last week. Will 'Kiki's' '10' be able to approach these records? At Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo sold more than 3 million shirts a year in 2010. 

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