The story of Kylian Mbappe’s rise at Real Madrid is already the stuff of legend. In 2025 alone, the French superstar has netted 33 goals in 37 appearances, a ruthless tally that has seen him compared to none other than Cristiano Ronaldo during his peak years in the Spanish capital. Yet behind the statistics and the goals lies a more intimate narrative — one that begins in Mbappe’s childhood home, where a mother’s heartfelt recollection reveals just how deep his admiration for Ronaldo truly ran.
At first glance, the French star’s lethal form underlines the obvious comparisons. His brace against Real Oviedo showcased both his sharp instincts and his ability to dominate crucial moments, opening the scoring in his 13th league match of the season. With 47 goals in a Real Madrid shirt, he has already surpassed Rafael Martín Vazquez and drawn level with streaks that only Ronaldo himself once produced. But while the sporting parallels are compelling, the roots of this obsession go back much further.
Like many French children of his generation, Mbappe’s earliest soccer idol was Zinedine Zidane. His mother, Fayza Lamari, recalls that it all started when her son was just four years old. Zidane represented more than just a sporting hero; he embodied French pride, artistry, and Real Madrid’s elite identity. These were values that would quietly lay the foundation for the 26-year-old’s future.
From Zidane, young Kylian learned to dream big. But the passion that defined his teenage years — the one that shaped how he thought, acted, and even saw himself — came from another icon entirely.
How the Cristiano Ronaldo obsession started
It wasn’t just admiration. It was identity. Fayza Lamari, speaking to L’Equipe, revealed just how powerful her son’s fixation on Ronaldo became: “It started with Zidane, from the age of four. Then came CR7 when he joined Manchester and later Real Madrid. There were also Robinho, Ronaldinho… Kylian was Portuguese in his head. For him, he was Portuguese. He used to go to a friend’s father’s house to watch Portugal’s matches and support Ronaldo. (Laughs). He was in love. He would say: ‘I’m Portuguese.’”
The six-word claim — “Kylian was Portuguese in his head” — encapsulates the intensity of this obsession. For Mbappe, Ronaldo wasn’t simply a player to admire from afar. He lived and breathed his career, going so far as to imagine himself Portuguese just to strengthen that connection. The boy from Bondy would sit in front of the television, watching Portugal’s matches, not out of patriotism but because his hero was on the pitch.
This fixation lasted for years, shaping his mindset as he began carving his own path in soccer. His mother joked that the phase lasted so long she refuses to disclose his age at the time: “Very late. I won’t disclose an age, or he’ll insult me. But it lasted a long time.”
From childhood fantasy to Santiago Bernabeu reality
Fast-forward to 2025, and the transformation feels almost surreal. Mbappe isn’t just watching Ronaldo anymore — he’s carrying the same white shirt that once made his idol immortal. The numbers confirm this.
With 47 goals since the start of last season, Mbappe sits among Europe’s top scorers, trailing only Harry Kane, Robert Lewandowski, and Serhou Guirassy. His style, sharper after adding four kilos of muscle post-World Cup, mirrors the Cristiano Ronaldo who once dominated La Liga with unparalleled ferocity.
For Real Madrid fans, it feels like history repeating itself. Just as Zidane and Ronaldo once defined eras at the Bernabeu, Mbappe seems destined to carve out his own.
