Mourinho’s Madrid: Unity and Mbappé’s Hat-Trick
Kylian Mbappé walked off with the match ball and the headlines after his hat-trick against Real Sociedad, but the bigger story at Real Madrid is taking shape quietly in the background. It sits in the dressing room, in the training sessions, in the way this team now celebrates each other’s success.
It sits, above all, in the message Jose Mourinho has been hammering home since the day he walked back through the door: individual glory is worthless if the team isn’t pulling in the same direction.
Mourinho’s Madrid starts to sound like a team
According to AS, Mbappé and his teammates have bought into that idea early. That alone marks a shift. This is a squad loaded with egos, medals and reputations, but the early signs suggest old disputes have been parked, at least for now. The harmony around Madrid’s first two competitive games has given Mourinho exactly what he craves most at the start of a long season: a united dressing room.
On the pitch, the talent has never been in doubt. Madrid can field match‑winners in almost every line of the team. Mourinho knows that only gets you so far. The Portuguese coach has built his career on turning stars into soldiers for the cause, and he has wasted no time making unity the cornerstone of his work.
The response? So far, emphatic.
Mbappé’s three goals in the 4-1 win over Real Sociedad were a reminder of his most basic duty. He doesn’t need lectures about what he’s there to do in front of goal. But the way he has folded that responsibility into the broader demands of the side is what is starting to catch the eye inside the club.
A season packed with major competitions will stretch this squad. Fatigue, injuries, dips in form – they will all come. That is when players have to run for each other, cover each other, sacrifice for each other. According to the same report, Mbappé has understood that clearly. He has long been judged by his numbers; now he is being judged by how those numbers lift the team around him.
Strikers live and die by goals. That will never change. The game’s biggest individual prizes, though, rarely land in the lap of someone whose team falls short. Mbappé knows it. Mourinho knows it. Real Madrid know it.
His goals can push Madrid to trophies. Madrid’s trophies can push him to the top of the individual podium. The relationship is that simple, and that complicated.
A hat-trick with perfect timing
The timing of this performance could hardly be sharper. The 2026 Ballon d’Or will be handed out on October 27, with France Football set to release its 30-man shortlist in the coming days. The debate is wide open, the criteria as opaque as ever. There is no fixed formula, no guaranteed path.
What is clear is that the World Cup will loom large over the vote. Spain’s leading players, fresh from global success, will naturally command serious attention. Paris Saint-Germain’s continued presence deep into the Champions League has also kept several of their stars in the frame.
Mbappé refuses to slip quietly out of that conversation. Nights like this one against Real Sociedad keep his name burning in it. He cannot control how voters weigh World Cup heroics against club dominance, but he can control his own output – and, crucially, the fortunes of the team carrying him.
Mbappé and Madrid: a mutual dependency
The Ballon d’Or remains an individual award in name, yet Mbappé’s strongest case will not be built on solo highlight reels alone. It will rest on what he does inside a functioning, winning collective.
That is why this early sense of togetherness at Real Madrid matters so much. Two games are not a season. They do not erase every doubt about a squad that has known its share of tension and fracture. They do, though, hint at a group ready to follow Mourinho’s lead.
AS reports that the old disagreements have been set aside. The mood is better. The celebrations feel shared, not staged. Mourinho, often accused of dividing, appears for now to have united.
And at the heart of it, Mbappé has started at full speed, his goals aligned with a broader purpose.
For Madrid, that could be the foundation of a season that stretches deep into every competition. For Mbappé, it might be the difference between another prolific year and the one that finally crowns him above the rest.
