{"id":34557,"date":"2026-05-15T10:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34557"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:53:20","slug":"mbappe-is-fourth-choice-forward-under-arbeloa-at-madrid","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/mbappe-is-fourth-choice-forward-under-arbeloa-at-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Mbappe is fourth-choice forward under Arbeloa at Madrid&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>France captain Kylian Mbappe says he is now the fourth-choice forward at Real Madrid after manager Alvaro Arbeloa left him out of the starting line-up for their 2-0 win over Real Oviedo on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Frenchman, who missed Sunday\u2019s 2-0 defeat by Barcelona and was booed by his own fans on his return from a hamstring injury, came off the bench in the 68th minute after Arbeloa opted to play Vinicius Junior and Gonzalo Garcia in attack.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Mbappe told reporters fitness was not an issue. \u201cI\u2019m 100% fine. I haven\u2019t played because for the coach I\u2019ve been the fourth striker in the squad behind (Franco) Mastantuono, Vini and Gonzalo,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI was ready to start. It\u2019s his decision, and it always has to be respected. \u201cI have no problem at all with Arbeloa. You have to accept the coach\u2019s philosophy, and I have to do better to play ahead of Vini, Gonzalo and Mastantuono.\u201d Mbappe has faced criticism from fans for travelling to Sardinia while recovering from his injury, though he said the club had authorised the trip.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Arbeloa said there was no way he could start Mbappe after he missed the Barcelona match and dismissed the suggestion he had told the Frenchman he was fourth choice.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI had a conversation with him before the game, and I don\u2019t know what he could have interpreted,\u201d the Spaniard told reporters.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cFor me, it is very clear that a player who four days ago could not be on the bench (against Barcelona), today should not start.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Especially because it\u2019s not a final, it\u2019s not a game of life or death.\u201d Arbeloa added that Mbappe would start Real\u2019s next match at Sevilla on Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29802,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-34557","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mbappe told reporters fitness was not an issue.","published_date":"","news_description":"Mbappe told reporters fitness was not an issue.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34560,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34557\/revisions\/34560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}