Not so long ago – the memory remains vivid – the Bernabéu Stadium echoed with childlike chants of Rodrygo’s name. He was the teenager who crafted miracle nights, the hero who rescued Real Madrid against Manchester City, the magician who turned the impossible into the norm. The young man seemingly destined to write a white legend now watches, from an unimaginable distance, as another monopolizes all the spotlight… and all the goals.
For time – which once smiled upon him – has turned elsewhere. This shift comes with the stinging cruelty of statistics: Kylian Mbappé has surged past Rodrygo into Real Madrid’s all-time scoring charts in just a few fleeting moments on the pitch. For the Frenchman, it is merely confirmation of a destiny forged since childhood; for the Brazilian, it is an unignorable wound, one no band-aid can conceal.
Rodrygo has played 286 games in white, scoring 68 goals and accumulating 16,599 minutes of action. It has been a winding journey filled with ups and downs, yet not lacking in eternal moments. Mbappé, however, completed this unforeseen overtaking in just 79 games, 69 goals, and 6,493 minutes. The contrast is staggering: the Frenchman left this already great player in the dust, having played 10,106 fewer minutes.
While the Frenchman basks in an immediate explosion of form, Rodrygo trudges through the darkest tunnel of his career. His goal drought has stretched to 31 games – an unprecedented dry spell in his career and an increasingly heavy burden. His once electrifying football has turned timid, his once abundant confidence has gradually dried up. Under the overwhelming glow of the Bernabéu’s new idol and other attacking teammates, his figure shrinks by the day, and he has lost faith in his own future.
Mbappé arrived here to fulfill a lifelong dream. Rodrygo, meanwhile, has unwittingly fallen into an endless dark tunnel. During the same period that the Brazilian has failed to celebrate a single goal, the Frenchman wearing the No. 10 jersey has written a seemingly never-ending new chapter. This collision of fates is destined to leave deep scars.
