Kylian Mbappe has signed for Champions League winners Real Madrid after a record-breaking Paris St Germain career.
Here, we look at the France forward’s record.
Paris record-breaker
Mbappe became PSG’s record scorer aged just 24 when he passed Edinson Cavani’s 200 goals for the Ligue 1 club.
He equalled the record with a brace against the club’s arch-rivals Marseille before scoring a record-breaking last-minute clincher in the 4-2 win over Nantes on March 4, 2023.
A further 11 that season, for a total of 41, and then 44 in his final season at the club took his tally to 256 goals from 308 appearances with the Rouge et Bleu.
He also holds the club records for goals in Ligue 1 with 174, in UEFA competitions (42) and in domestic cups (39).
Mbappe scored 14 hat-tricks for the club, including four goals in a 5-0 league win over Lyon in October 2018 and five in a 7-0 Coupe de France rout of minnows Pays de Cassel in January 2023.
He won six league titles, four Coupes de France and two Coupes de la Ligue with the club and played in the 2020 Champions League final.
Before his move to the capital, initially on loan in 2017 and permanently the following summer, he played 57 times for Monaco and scored 27 goals – all but one in the 2016-17 season.
True Bleu
Mbappe has 46 goals in 77 France caps to rank third among their all-time men’s top scorers.
He needs five to catch Thierry Henry in second place and is 11 behind record scorer Olivier Giroud, who has this summer’s European Championship to add to his 57 before ending his international career. Eugenie le Sommer has a record 93 for the women’s team.
Mbappe scored an unforgettable hat-trick in the 2022 World Cup final, finishing as the tournament Golden Boot winner with eight goals even as his then PSG club-mate Lionel Messi inspired Argentina to the title on penalties.
He is also one of only six players to score four or more goals in a game for France, against Kazakhstan in November 2021.
He has scored 12 goals in World Cups and six in qualifiers, another dozen in European Championship qualifiers, seven in the Nations League and nine in friendlies.
He goes to Euro 2024 looking for his first goals in the finals of the competition, having drawn a blank in four appearances in 2021 and missed the decisive penalty in a shoot-out defeat to Switzerland.
New focal point
Vinicius Jr was Real Madrid’s top scorer in the season just concluded, netting in the Champions League final to edge out Jude Bellingham 24 goals to 23.
That is the lowest tally for Real’s leading marksman since before the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009, with the Portuguese averaging 50 goals a season in all competitions in his nine years with the club including 61 in 2014-15 and 60 in 2011-12.
Karim Benzema then took over the mantle, with at least 30 goals in four of the next five seasons – peaking with 44 in 2021-22 when he scored 15 in the Champions League alone.
His fellow Frenchman Mbappe will arrive with expectations to lead the line in the same way as those players once did.
Still only 25 and having scored 42, 39, 41 and then 44 club goals in all competitions over the last four seasons, there will be hopes he can emulate Ronaldo’s half-centuries.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
