LONDON, United Kingdom, August 14 – With Euro 2024 glory followed by further triumphs at the European Under-19 Championship and the Olympics, it has been a sizzling summer of success for Spanish football. The trophy run was kickstarted in June at club level by Real Madrid, who completed a league and European double by downing Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at Wembley. Prior to a new season featuring expanded formats for both the Champions League and Club World Cup, Real clearly remain the team to beat, both domestically and abroad.
And Wednesday’s Super Cup match with Atalanta is the first chance for Carlo Ancelotti’s men to not only claim another piece of Spanish summer silverware, but also show the world they could be about to get even better. Mbappe adds to cast of superstars The transfer story of the summer was settled very early, with Real finally bringing their on-off-on-off pursuit of French superstar Kylian Mbappe to a successful conclusion. Both club and player believe Mbappe has always been destined to play for Real Madrid, and his arrival gives Los Blancos arguably the three best attackers in the world alongside Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham.
The question is where the new man will fit in. Mbappe is not a genuine centre-forward, in the same way that Vinicius and Rodrygo are not genuine wingers, and a significant degree of positional flexibility will be required to ensure the star-studded forward line complement each other – rather than.