France striker Kylian Mbappe is a World Cup and Champions League marvel who is destined to break all sorts of records, having already toppled a fair few.
The fella was ludicrously good against Poland and it will take some effort from England to keep him quiet in the quarter-finals, especially going off these statistics.
* Only 13 players have scored more World Cup goals than Kylian Mbappe (9).
* Only seven players have scored more World Cup knockout goals than Kylian Mbappe, who is level with all-time top scorer Miroslav Klose on five: Mario Kempes, Gary Lineker, Gerd Muller (all 6), Pele, Vava, Paolo Rossi (all 7) and Ronaldo (8).
* Only six players have scored more goals for the French national team than Kylian Mbappe (33), and only Just Fontaine has scored more goals for the French national team at the World Cup. He is also the youngest French player to score at a World Cup.
* Kylian Mbappe is the first player to score eight – and, later in the same game, nine – World Cup goals before their 24th birthday.
* Kylian Mbappe was the second teenager to score twice in a World Cup game and the second teenager to score in a World Cup final; Pele was first to do both.
Pray for the King 👑🙏🏽🇧🇷 @Pele
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) December 3, 2022
* Kylian Mbappe is the only player to score a competitive hat-trick for France in Kylian Mbappe’s lifetime. Before his four goals against Kazakhstan in a World Cup qualifier in November 2021, the previous treble for Les Bleus outside of friendlies was in 1985, by Dominique Rocheteau.
* Only 18 players in Champions League and European Cup history have scored more goals in the competition than Kylian Mbappe (40), and of those just Eusebio, Alfredo di Stefano, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have a better goals-per-game record than the Frenchman’s 0.68.
* Kylian Mbappe has scored more Champions League or European Cup goals than Ferenc Puskas, Gerd Muller, Samuel Eto’o. Wayne Rooney, David Trezeguet, Ryan Giggs, Luis Suarez and Romario, among many others.
* Kylian Mbappe became the youngest player to score 40 Champions League goals in November 2022. He also holds the record as the youngest player to score 35 Champions League goals and once set the mark for 30, 25, 20 and 15 (breaking Messi’s record each time), as well as 10 (surpassing Karim Benzema). Erling Haaland has since beaten most of those and is 12 tournament goals behind Mbappe, with 19 months on him.
* Kylian Mbappe is one of only three players to score a Champions League hat-trick against Barcelona, and the first to score four goals against the Catalans in a single Champions League campaign.
* Kylian Mbappe is Paris Saint-Germain’s record goalscorer in the European Cup and Champions League, despite being 23 and joining them five years ago. He is also their second-highest scorer of all time in all competitions.
* Only eight players have ever scored more Champions League knockout stage goals than Kylian Mbappe (15), who has more than Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and any Liverpool player.
* Kylian Mbappe is the youngest player in Champions League history to score in both legs of a quarter-final, and to score at all in a semi-final, with those goals coming for Monaco in 2017. His first six Champions League career goals were all in the knockout stages.
* Kylian Mbappe is the youngest Champions League goalscorer for two clubs, which is ridiculous the more you think about it. He was quite inevitably the first teenager in history to score a Champions League goal for two different clubs.
* Kylian Mbappe is the highest-scoring teenager in Champions League history.
* Kylian Mbappe has already scored away at Camp Nou, the Bernabeu, Old Trafford, Anfield, the Etihad, the Allianz Arena, the Juventus Stadium, Signal Iduna Park and Celtic Park.
* Only four of the 21 teams Kylian Mbappe has played in the Champions League have prevented him from ever scoring. He has faced Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen just once, making CSKA Moscow and Napoli the only teams to come up against Mbappe twice in Europe without conceding to him.
* Mbappe has played 12 games against English clubs, scoring and assisting five goals each against Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham.
* Mbappe was the most expensive teenager in football history and remains the second most expensive player ever after his £166m move to Paris Saint-Germain in 2018.
* Mbappe ranks 21st for all-time Ligue Un goals (147) but is first for Ligue Un goals scored in the 21st century.
* Mbappe has been Ligue Un top scorer in four consecutive seasons; the overall record for most Golden Boots in the French top flight is five; he is the current joint top scorer in the 2022/23 campaign.
* Mbappe was the first player to finish as top scorer and assist provider in the same Ligue Un season (2021/22).
* Mbappe is the only player to win the Ligue Un Player of the Year award in three consecutive seasons.
* Mbappe has scored 254 goals in 372 career appearances for club and country, winning 14 trophies.
