Kylian Mbappé’s investments in Madrid and Paris: Mansions, luxurious car collection...

Kylian Mbappé is, it will floor you to hear, wealthy. The France striker, who joined Real Madrid on a five-year contract in 2024, banks an estimated $95m annually, from earnings both on and off the field. In 2025, Forbes named the player the fourth-highest-paid soccer star in the world, and the 16th-highest-paid athlete.

Mbappé bags ex-Blanco’s Madrid mansion

Armed with a bumper bank balance, Mbappé has sorted himself out with a Madrid home that is - checks notes - big. When he signed for Los Blancos from Paris Saint-Germain, he purchased a $13m, 12,000-square-foot mansion in the Spanish capital’s upmarket La Finca area. The previous proprietor? Former Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale.

And that Mbappé-Bale deal was by no means the Frenchman’s first foray into the property market. Previously reported real-estate purchases include a $10m Paris duplex that is, yep: also big.

Mbappé’s La Finca mansion:

An array of automobiles

When your yearly income grazes the nine-figure mark, it would be frankly nonsensical behavior not to treat yourself to a car or seven. Mbappé’s garage is, indeed, well populated. The World Cup winner’s luxury collection reportedly includes a Mercedes, a BMW and more than one Ferrari - yet he only got his driver’s license a few months ago.

So: We’ve established that, yes, elite professional soccer players are the beneficiaries of stonking remuneration packages. What the events of recent days have also established, however, is that money doesn’t buy you the ability to read the room.

Although he has racked up 41 goals in 41 games in 2025/26, Mbappé has increasingly become the target of Madrid supporters’ ire, amid a disastrous run-in that culminated in the Valverde-Tchouaméni fight - and confirmation of a second straight trophyless campaign.

Why has Mbappé annoyed Real Madrid fans?

After suffering a muscle injury against Real Betis on April 24, Mbappé was sidelined for Madrid’s May 3 clash at Espanyol - a game Los Merengues needed to win to maintain their then-slim (and now defunct) league title chances. However, the forward opted against attending the 2-0 victory at RCDE Stadium.

Instead, he hopped on a jet for a getaway to Sardinia, and landed back in Spain just 12 minutes before the game kicked off.

“That hurt the fans,” wrote the Real Madrid journalist Sergio López in AS. “They expected a leader to be by his teammates’ side at such a tricky time. Even if he couldn’t play, he could have been there to support them. Leadership isn’t only about what you do on the field.”

Four days later, as he drove off from training at Madrid’s Valdebebas sports complex, Mbappé was seen giggling away to himself. Looking openly chuffed with life is, this writer can confirm, legal. But it’s a sub-optimal plan if, that very morning, two of your teammates have had a million-euro ruck that left one of them in the hospital.

And last weekend, Mbappé’s ill-timed chuckle was followed by an ill-timed social-media post. On Sunday, he again remained in Madrid as Los Blancos travelled to Catalonia, knowing a draw or loss against Barcelona would confirm their arch rivals as LaLiga champions. As he watched El Clásico from home, Mbappé shared a photo of the game on his TV, with the message “Hala Madrid” (“Come on Madrid”) and a white-heart emoji.

But he made the questionable decision not to post the image when the game kicked off, or at least while it remained goalless. Instead, he waited until 35 minutes in, when Madrid were well on their way to defeat at 2-0 down - a scoreline that is clearly visible in Mbappé’s photo. An apparent message of support left itself open to alternative interpretations.

“For many supporters, the social-media post came across less like leadership and more like detachment from a project that appears to be suffocating under pressure while watching Barcelona celebrate another title,” Madrid reporter Carlos Forjanes wrote in this newspaper. “The wound was already bleeding heavily. This only poured salt into it.”

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