How Kylian Mbappe can break Cristiano Ronaldo’s insane Champions League goal record | OneFootball

Cristiano Ronaldo proudly holds the record of being the all-time top goalscorer in the history of the Champions League, but Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe is rapidly closing him down.

With 140 Champions League goals to his name, Ronaldo is comfortably the top goalscorer in UEFA’s flagship competition, including the old European Cup.

The 40-year-old Portugal international scored 11 more Champions League goals than his era-defining rival Lionel Messi and it doesn’t look as though that record will be eclipsed any time soon.

Robert Lewandowski stands third in the all-time scoring charts with 105 goals, but he’s 37 years of age and into the final year of his contract with Barcelona.

Scoring another 35 goals to one day eclipse Ronaldo, at this twilight stage of his career, is a big ask.

Of the players currently playing, Mbappe looks the likeliest candidate to one day eclipse Ronaldo’s goalscoring record.

He’s still a considerable distance behind Ronaldo’s goalscoring tally and has a considerable distance left to run, but if he continues on his current trajectory and can remain relatively injury-free into his thirties, it’s definitely achievable.

The France international’s four-goal tally against Olympiacos on Wednesday evening cemented his status as Los Blancos’ biggest Galactico and most reliable goalscoring threat since his boyhood idol, Ronaldo.

Mbappe is already up to 22 goals from just 18 appearances in all competitions so far this season, while he currently tops the Champions League goalscoring charts with nine in five in the League Phase so far.

He’s now up to sixth in the all-time goalscoring charts, ahead of the likes of Thomas Muller, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry. He’s scored 64 goals from 92 appearances in total.

To put the scale of his task in context, he’s not even halfway to matching Ronaldo’s goalscoring tally. Double his goals and he wouldn’t even quite match Messi. But at the age of 26, there’s every chance he’s not yet reached the halfway stage of his career.

Mbappe made his Champions League debut nine years ago but he’s only become more prolific as he’s reached his prime.

This season he’s already notched his best-ever tally with nine Champions League goals, while there are still three League Phase matches before the knockout stages get underway.

He could easily find himself breaking Ronaldo’s best single-season record, 17 Champions League goals, set back in 2013-14.

Up until this season, Mbappe has actually averaged a surprisingly meagre six Champions League goals a year since he burst onto the scene with Monaco.

But you look at his trajectory, and the extra games afforded by the expanded format, and you expect that average to rise exponentially in his prime years, just like Ronaldo during his time at the Bernabeu.

Ronaldo endured a famously slow start in the Champions League, failing to score in his first 26 appearances in the competition for Manchester United.

In fact, when Ronaldo was Mbappe’s age (two months shy of turning 27), he’d scored fewer than half as many Champions League goals – just 31 in late December 2011.

When Ronaldo had made the same number of Champions League appearances as Mbappe has now (92), he’d scored 14 fewer goals – 50.

So in reality, Mbappe is tracking ahead of Ronaldo and actually has something of a head start. But he’d do amazingly to match the Portugal international’s goalscoring exploits after turning 30; 68 goals.

At a conservative estimate, let’s say Mbappe scores five more Champions League goals this season and then continues averaging 10 goals a season during his prime years.

That would see Mbappe one day match Ronaldo’s tally in 2033, by which point Mbappe would be 34.

But the picture changes if we really back Mbappe to achieve spectacular goalscoring feats; let’s say he scores 10 more goals this season and continues averaging 15 goals a season in the years ahead.

That’s not unthinkable when you look at his recent form, when footballers tend to peak, and Real Madrid’s near-guaranteed place in this expanded Champions League every year.

Such a scenario would see the World Cup winner overtake Ronaldo midway through the 2030-31 season, around the time he turns 31.

Will he do it? Only time will tell. But as long as he can avoid any career-derailing injuries, we’re backing him to make it happen.