Kylian Mbappé becomes the second Frenchman to win European scoring title | OneFootball

While he didn’t win the UEFA Champions League in his first season at Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappé (26) took home a big individual honour over the weekend. The French captain netted a brace in Real Madrid’s 2-0 victory over Real Sociedad on the final day of the La Liga campaign.

He ends his first campaign at the Beanabéu with 31 goals in the Spanish top-flight, winning the European Golden Boot award as the player with the most points accumulated from goals scored this season.

The 2022 World Cup Golden Boot winner scored eight fewer goals than Victor Gyokeres (26) of Sporting Lisbon (26), but goals scored in Europe’s top five big leagues count for two points each, while those in Portugal are worth 1.5 points.

In the end, Mbappé wound up with 62 points, Gyokeres had 58.5, Mohamed Salah (32) ended with 58 points, Robert Lewandowski (36) had 54, and Harry Kane (31) accumulated 52.

Mbappé is only the second French player to take home this award. The previous one came 20 years before him, when Arsenal legend Thierry Henry had 25 in 2004-05, finishing tied with Villareal’s Diego Forlan. Henry won the award the previous season, scoring 30 Premier League goals in 2003-04.

Impressively, Mbappé’s 31 goals for Los Blancos came in only 34 La Liga appearances. The 2018 World Cup winner with Les Bleus scored in each of Real Madrid’s final five league fixtures.

Only two Real Madrid players took home the Golden Shoe before Mbappé, the first being Mexican Hugo Sanchez in 1989-90. Cristiano Ronaldo (40) won it three times with Los Blancos in 2010-11, 2013-14, and 2014-15.

GFFN | Joel Lefevre