Football
Messi is great, Ronaldo is great, but here is the next big thing in world football
There is without any iota of doubt that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronalo have successfully redefined the world football for over a decade now as the both superstars consistently defied the norms to set new standards.
The two players can conveniently boast of twelve Ballon d’Or awards to their names as they have not relented on giant football strides.
Meanwhile, the world of football may not have seen the best of it yet as Kylian Mbappe records and stats at age of 24 show he’s got football world at his feet.
Kylian Mbappe celebrates his birthday just two days after losing the World Cup final with France, with his performances at this year’s tournament confirming his status as football’s next superstar
Just two days after losing the World Cup final, Kylian Mbappe is celebrating his 24th birthday, though he already has football at his feet even at his young age.
Mbappe burst onto the scenes with Monaco in 2016, before winning the World Cup with France two years’ later. A move to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 has led to a stunning period of success for the attacker, who has become football’s next superstar.
His performance in the defeat to Argentina in Sunday’s final was a marker of his talents, as he dragged Les Bleus from the verge of defeat to forcing a penalty shootout. The list of records that he has already stacked up is phenomenal, with the future incredibly bright.
Following this year’s tournament, Mbappe is now just five goals away from becoming the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history. Only five players sit ahead of him in those standings, with only Lionel Messi likely to feature at the next tournament out of that group.
Eight of his goals have come in the knockout stages, level with the Brazilian Ronaldo for the most in those stages. He is also the first to have scored 12 goals at World Cups before celebrating his 24th birthday.
His hat-trick was only the second seen in a World Cup final in football history and he was also only the second man to score in two successive finals. He is also now the record scorer in World Cup finals, with four in 2018 and 2022 combined.
Those three goals in this year’s final means that he remains the only player to score a competitive hat-trick for France in his lifetime. Mbappe has done it once before, in November 2021, with the last one scored by Les Bleus coming in 1985.
He is also closing in on Olivier Giroud’s record for goals scored for France, with the Paris Saint-Germain star just 18 goals away from overtaking him. The attacker will surely become France’s leading World Cup scorer at the next tournament, with only Just Fontaine ahead of him.
It is not just on the international stage where Mbappe has been dominant, with the 24-year-old racking up a stack of records at club level. He is the youngest player to ever reach the 40 goals mark in the Champions League and the youngest to reach 35 goals.
Only five players have scored more knockout goals in the European Cup than Mbappe, who has registered more in those stages than any Liverpool player. He is also the youngest to score in both legs of a quarter-final or at any stage of the semi-finals.
Incredibly, he is the youngest Champions League scorer for two clubs and the first teenager to register a goal in the competition for two teams. As well as being PSG’s record scorer in the Champions League, he is only 11 goals away from becoming their all-time record scorer.
That is in large part thanks to the 147 goals he has scored in Ligue 1, the most of any player in the 21st century. He has been the top scorer in the division for four successive seasons and will equal the record for the most golden boots if he finishes first again this term.
Those goals have helped him become the only player to be crowned Ligue 1 Player of the Year in three successive seasons. With 253 career goals and 14 trophies to his name already, the world is truly at Mbappe’s feet.