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After finally sealing his long-awaited move to Real Madrid, there was slight disappointment around Kylian Mbappé's first season at the Santiago Bernabéu last term. Despite scoring 42 goals, Los Blancos went trophy-less, as Mbappé's old team Paris Saint-Germain finally won the Champions League. Some of the criticism seemed harsh given the Frenchman's individual numbers, but the 26-year-old has taken his game to another level this season, as he has really settled in Madrid and won everybody over.
Mbappé has scored 21 goals and provided a further four assists in just 25 games this term, and was rewarded with a +€20m upgrade in Transfermarkt's latest LaLiga market value update this December. It means he returns to a €200m valuation and becomes the joint-most valuable player in the world alongside Barcelona teenager Lamine Yamal and Manchester City goal-machine Erling Haaland. It's first time he has hit that figure in five years - let's take a look back at the journey of Mbappé and his market value.
Kylian Mbappé - from Monaco promise to €200m superstar
After spending time at France's famous Clairefontaine Youth academy, Mbappé joined Monaco aged 15. It was soon clear that the Ligue 1 club had a special talent on their hands, The youngster made his first-team debut in 2015 when he was still only 16. In doing so, he broke Thierry Henry's long-standing record as Monaco's youngest ever player, which had stood since 1994 - a record that has since been broken twice. He was given his first market value of just €50 thousand that December.
That figure grew to €1m the following April, but it was the 2016/17 season where he really announced himself on the world stage. Monaco made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League and it was heavily aided by their teenage superstar - Mbappé scored six goals in nine games on that run. His market value rose to €35m and PSG soon came calling.
The Parisians initially signed him on loan, with an agreement reached to make the deal permanent the following summer for a huge €180m fee - the second highest fee of all-time behind PSG's €222m Neymar acquisition. The goals continued to flood and his value continued to rise. After scoring 25 in his first season, Mbappé's market value hit €150m. The following campaign, the numbers increased and so did his value as he became the first ever player to hit the €200m mark in December 2018. However, that figure dropped back to €180m the following April, and then €160m a year later.
A move to LaLiga giants Real Madrid has long been mooted but when it eventually came to fruition in the summer of 2024, his value stood at €180m once again. Mbappé became by far the most valuable free transfer of all-time as Los Blancos picked up the French superstar without paying a penny, due to his contract running out in Paris. After some early struggles and some perhaps unrealistic expectations his value initially dropped to €160m last December. By the end of the season, it was back at €180m, and this December he is back on top of the world at €200m. It's been a journey of some ups and downs for the Frenchman but one things has always been consistent: goals.
