MADRID — Saturday, 19 September 2026
Real Madrid travel to the Riyadh Air Metropolitano on Sunday second in LaLiga, one defeat into José Mourinho’s second spell in charge, and still carrying the question that has trailed them since the season opened in August: how much of this start is a team being rebuilt, and how much is one forward carrying it?
The case for optimism is straightforward. Madrid have 15 points from six matches — five wins and a 1-0 defeat at Real Betis on 4 September — and opened their Champions League campaign with a 2-1 win over Inter Milan at the Bernabéu on 8 September. They sit level on points with Betis and six behind Barcelona, who have won all seven of their league games, with a match in hand that they play on Sunday.
The case for caution sits in the same set of results. Madrid have conceded in six of those seven matches. Their only clean sheet came against newly promoted Málaga. On Tuesday at Elche they led 2-0 at the break and were pegged back by Abiel Osorio and substitute Fer Niño before Carlos Espí, on from the bench, scored a 91st-minute winner against a side still without a league victory. Madrid’s first goal that night was an own goal by Elche goalkeeper Matías Dituro, deflected in off his back from an Arda Güler free kick; Opta does not credit Güler. Mourinho’s post-match assessment was that his team had risked everything to take the three points.
Mbappé makes the difference
Kylian Mbappé has been the difference. He has eight goals in seven appearances this season, seven of them in six league games, a run that makes him the first Real Madrid player since Hugo Sánchez in 1987 to open consecutive LaLiga campaigns at that rate. His goal against Inter drew him level with Raúl on 71 Champions League goals, fifth on the competition’s all-time list. At Elche he scored one and laid on the winner for Espí — a forward signed from Levante on 30 July who has now rescued Madrid twice from the bench, having also scored a late winner on his debut at Espanyol on the opening weekend.
Mourinho’s second spell
That Mourinho is the man managing all this remains the season’s defining fact. He signed a contract to 2029 on 11 June, effective from 13 July, thirteen years after the end of a first spell in which he won LaLiga, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa. His appointment was a campaign commitment from Florentino Pérez, who won an extraordinary presidential election on 7 June — the club’s first membership vote in two decades.
The mandate was clear enough. Madrid have gone two seasons without a major trophy. Xabi Alonso, hired in 2025 to succeed Carlo Ancelotti, won ten of his first eleven league games and beat Barcelona in the season’s first Clásico before a poor November and December; he left on 12 January, the day after a 3-2 Supercopa final defeat to Barcelona in Jeddah, in what the club described as a mutual agreement. Álvaro Arbeloa, promoted from Castilla, won 18 of his 28 matches but lost to a second-division side in the Copa del Rey in his first game, went out of the Champions League to Bayern Munich 6-4 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, and finished second to Barcelona. His departure was also announced as a mutual agreement, in June.
A rebuilt squad
The squad has been reshaped at both ends. Dani Carvajal left after 23 years in the club’s structure and six European Cups, David Alaba after five seasons, Dani Ceballos after nine, and Fran García to Betis. For the first time since 2012-13 there is no survivor of the 2016-18 European three-peat in the dressing room. The incomings were Marc Cucurella from Chelsea, for a fee The Athletic reported at around €60m; Ibrahima Konaté and Bernardo Silva on free transfers from Liverpool and Manchester City; Denzel Dumfries from Inter on 5 July after Madrid triggered a release clause reported at €20-25m, on a deal to 2030; Espí from Levante; and Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig on a contract to 2033, for a fee variously reported between €100m and €125m plus add-ons. Endrick returned from a loan at Lyon.
Diomande, 19, last season’s Bundesliga rookie of the year, has been the most direct attacking outlet — he assisted Mbappé at Elche and led the match for dribbles and chances created — though his defensive work in the build-up to Elche’s equaliser was less encouraging.
Injuries have thinned the spine. Aurélien Tchouaméni, Éder Militão, Rodrygo, Ferland Mendy and Endrick all missed the Inter match, with Eduardo Camavinga and Güler suspended for it. Thibaut Courtois, who made seven saves against Inter and was singled out by Mourinho afterwards, is under contract to 2027; AS reported on 13 September that the club is close to an extension through June 2028, though nothing has been announced.
The schedule tightens
The schedule now stops being gentle. After Atlético on Sunday come Villarreal at home, Roma away in the Champions League on 14 October, Sevilla at home and the Clásico at Barcelona on 25 October.
