The forward has faced criticism at times for his performances during his first season at the La Liga club but the Portuguese legend thinks Mbappe can replicate the impact he made for Los Blancos.

Ronaldo told Spanish TV show 'El Chiringuito': "Look after the lad.

"The fans need to look after him. He's very good. The club have to help to protect him, I have no doubt he'll bring a lot of joy to Madrid fans.

"I love [Mbappe], not just because of his story as a kid, how he loved Cristiano, I was his idol. I think he's a top player."

Ronaldo tunes in to watch Real because his son Mateo is a fan of the French international but thinks that Mbappe needs help adjusting to his role in the star-studded team.

The Al-Nassr player said: "It's complicated, because he doesn't know how to play as a forward in my opinion - or rather, it's not that he doesn't know, but it isn't his position. If I was at Madrid, I'd show him how to play as a number nine.

"I wasn't a forward. I got used to it, but I was a winger. People forget that. I was a forward, but not a typical forward. I think [Mbappe] shouldn't be a typical forward, he should do things his way."

Mbappe recently confessed that it took him longer than expected to settle in at Madrid following his long-awaited switch from PSG last summer.

He said: "I believe it was a mentality issue and that was a point I realised that I had to work harder.

"I was thinking too much about how to do things. Whether to go into space, whether to go to Vini's (Vinicius Jr's) area of the pitch, to Rodrygo's area ... when you overthink you don't focus on your game.

"I was fine physically and with the group but I knew I had to do more, that was the time to change the situation. I didn't come to Madrid to play badly. Here we have to play well all the time and now I am ready to do that."