Mbappe penalty debate continues after Racing Santander player admits contact

Real Madrid’s 3-0 win at Racing Santander was overshadowed by the penalty awarded to Kylian Mbappe after a first-half challenge involving Ivan Martin.

The incident came during Sunday’s La Liga match, the 11th round of the season, when Mbappe went down inside the Racing Santander penalty area after making contact with the midfielder.

Racing Santander’s players strongly protested the decision during the game and continued to question it afterwards. However, Martin acknowledged during an interview with DAZN at half-time that he had made contact with the France forward.

Martin said he had placed an arm across Mbappe as the player tried to accelerate with the ball, but argued that the challenge did not justify a penalty.

“I put my arm on him slightly, but incidents like that should not be given as penalties,” Martin said.

He added: “The referee told us he had seen contact and that the video assistant referee had confirmed it.”

The midfielder accepted that his arm had struck Mbappe at chest height and prevented him from continuing his run. He also explained that referee Monera had justified the decision on the basis that contact had occurred, with the VAR team agreeing with that assessment.

That leaves the key issue as whether the contact was enough to impede Mbappe unlawfully. Martin maintains that it was not, despite accepting that the two players collided.

Racing Santander manager Jose Alberto gave a similar assessment, saying that although there had been a touch between the players, the incident did not amount to an offence because there had been no push or deliberate holding.

The decision ultimately depended on Monera’s interpretation of the effect of the contact. If the referee considered the arm to have been sufficient to disrupt Mbappe’s movement inside the area, the penalty decision was valid. The precise impact of such a touch on a player’s movement cannot be measured objectively, leaving the on-field decision as the determining factor.

VAR was unable to intervene because Monera had seen the incident himself and had already assessed it. The technology could have corrected the decision if there had been no contact at all, but that was not the situation in this case.

As a result, Monera was not sent to the pitchside monitor for a review, despite Racing Santander’s arguments that the system should have been used to examine an incident of this nature.

The listed schedule includes Real Madrid’s Champions League match against AEK Athens on 04 November 2026. Real Madrid are also listed to face Malaga in La Liga on 07 November 2026, while Racing Santander are scheduled to play on the same date.