The Referee Problem

Chapter 1

Mbappé smiled as he sat down in the locker rooms. PSG had just won against Arsenal in the Champions League. He'd scored the winning goal, so the only person he was proud of was himself, as always. And now that Neymar and Messi were out of the team, he had everything to himself. No other player was there to stand in his spotlight, other than Hakimi, maybe.

"You seem happy." Hakimi sat down next to Mbappé in the locker rooms. "Of course I am, I scored the winning goal! I'm very happy for myself." Mbappé smiled. Hakimi looked at him for a bit. "But what about my goal-"

"Well, I scored the winning one. And isn't that all that matters? If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have won the game against those stupid gunners." Mbappé cut off Hakimi. Hakimi stayed silent. He wasn't mad or sad, he was already used to Mbappé acting like this. The whole team was.

After a moment of silence, Hakimi decided to break it, "Our next game is against Manchester City...so maybe we should focus on that one now."

Mbappé gave him a confused look. "Why would we have to focus on that game?" Hakimi was in shock. "Manchester City! They have Haaland on their team-"

"Oh yeah, the stupid goal scoring machine. Pfft, we have nothing to worry about." Mbappé dismissed the idea. Hakimi just shrugged and went back to taking his boots off. He always knew that Mbappé was this selfish. Thinking he was always the man and would be the man forever.

•••

It was now two days after the win against Arsenal, and it was training day.

The team was very focused on training hard this time, since they had tough opponents coming their way. Manchester City. Haaland was the main person everyone was fearing about, but there were also other players. Like...uh...too many to name.

But, there was only one person not focused on this upcoming game. Mbappé. He just sat down and watched his teammates train. Luis Enrique, the manager for PSG, didn't bother to push Mbappé to train. Why? Because he knew that Mbappé would just refuse and threaten to go to Real Madrid again.

But Marquinhos saw that Mbappé hadn't been training with the rest of the squad, and decided to go over to him.

"Hey, man, don't you think you should train?" Marquinhos asked. Mbappé was sitting down on the grass, and cast a cold stare at Marquinhos. "Why should I? Am I not the best in the world?" He challenged.

Marquinhos bit back the words of saying that he wasn't, but just shook his head. "Oh, no, I'd never think that." Marquinhos said, putting on a worried face.

Mbappé grinned at his reply. "Great, then there is no need for me to train. And trust me, that goal scoring robot isn't going to stop me from anything. With his height, he should've been a skyscraper."

Marquinhos sighed at his response. And without words, went off to train with his team again.

Why does everybody in the squad question my decisions? Don't they know I have more power than them? Mbappé thought to himself. He hated the fact that his teammates always would come up to him and ask why he wasn't training with them. The fact was, that he was already prepared. Why would you need training if you're already good?

"Mbappé!" Hakimi's shout took Mbappé out of his thoughts. He turned his head over to Hakimi, "What?" He shouted back. Hakimi sighed with a bit of annoyance, "Training is over! Don't you see that the rest of the squad has gone? Or are you too busy thinking about the next game?" Hakimi said. Mbappé stayed silent a bit, before getting up, "Alright, alright, I'm coming."

Since Hakimi was a good friend of Mbappé, Mbappé didn't act all annoyed and rude around him. And soon, Mbappé caught up with his friend. Hakimi patted him on the back.

"You know, you should probably get training...This isn't a game you should take so lightly, y'know? You treat every game like it's facing some Sunday League team." Hakimi told him. "I have trained. The thing is, I think I'm already good for the next match. Trust me, if it's a team like Real Madrid, then I'll be very prepared."

"Because you want them to give you a contract?" Hakimi said. Mbappé opened his mouth, trying to argue, but couldn't. No words could escape. Hakimi sighed, "You think that just because you're Mbappé you'll get into Real Madrid. You have to see that they already have great players. Y'know, like Vinícius Junior, Camavinga, Valverde, and now their main guy, Jude Bellingham."

Mbappé clenched his fists at the name Jude Bellingham. The most recent signing for Real Madrid. He was frustrated since they signed Jude instead of him.

I could do way better than him! Real Madrid will regret not signing me! Mbappé thought.

"You seem a bit mad...is it because of Jude?" Hakimi asked. Mbappé stared at the floor, "Of course it's him!" Mbappé snapped, "Instead of signing me, they went to some random English guy in Germany and decided to sign him! He's not even that good! He's probably doing the worst out of everyone in Real Madrid..."

Hakimi hesitated a bit. "Erm...you haven't seen how he's been in Real Madrid?" He asked. Mbappé lifted his head up and looked to Hakimi, "No...have you?" Hakimi nodded, "Yeah, he's the main guy there! Y'know, he's probably going to become a legend for them. Jude is the second ever signing for Real Madrid, other than Cristiano Ronaldo, to score in his first-"

Mbappé put his hand up in annoyance. Why was Hakimi going off on such a glory rant on Jude? He probably wasn't that good for Real Madrid. Mbappé had enough of Hakimi's words and walked faster, fast to the point he was walking on his own. He'd have to see Jude's highlights. He'd have to decide himself if he was really so good for Real Madrid.

•••

Mbappé sat at his couch, just done watching Jude's highlights for Real Madrid. He set his phone down onto a table and stared at the wall in disbelief.

Wow, this guy really is good...but surely I'm better? He thought to himself.

He picked his phone up once more and started to look through some other stuff. Mbappé saw what the fans thought on Jude.

"Best signing we've had!"

"The next legend!"

"We don't need Mbappé at all!"

Mbappé stared in disbelief. How dare the fans say that he wasn't needed anymore? He was needed. He would be such a great player if they signed him. Imagine, Vinícius Junior, Rodrygo, and himself being up-top. Greatness! Real Madrid would have a new glory era. But...now Jude was there and was already doing great.

But not better than me. Soon enough, if I show Real Madrid how I really play, I'll be signed in no time. Mbappé thought, smiling.