Mbappé hat-trick hero
Will Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland eclipse Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League record?
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Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland are widely regarded as two of the best players on the planet after taking over the mantle from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Haaland has soared to the most valuable player in the world alongside Vinicius Jr with Messi and Ronaldo reaching the epilogue of their careers. Both star strikers scored in the first leg of the Champions League play-off tie but only one star will progress into the last 16 after the second leg in Madrid with the reigning champions holding a 3-2 advantage.
Stats
K. Mbappé
Centre-Forward
Career stats–
UEFA Champions League
Games
84
Goals
55
Assists
25
Stats
E. Haaland
Centre-Forward
Career stats–
UEFA Champions League
Games
48
Goals
49
Assists
5
Messi and Ronaldo collected 13 Ballon D’Ors during their illustrious careers as they battled for individual and collective honours for almost two decades. Messi and Ronaldo haven’t retired yet as they pursue lucrative opportunities at Inter Miami and Al-Nassr respectvely but they are no longer competing in the pinnacle tournament in club football – the Champions League. Messi and Ronaldo are comfortably the two top goalscorers in the competition’s history but could Mbappé or Haaland eclipse their records?
Top five Champions League all-time top goalscorers (excluding qualifiers)
Ronaldo is the top goalscorer in Champions League history with 141 goals. The Portugal international scored 106 goals in the competition with Real Madrid, 21 with Manchester United and 14 with Juventus. Ronaldo impressively finished top scorer in the Champions League in seven campaigns and he recorded 0.79 goals per 90 in the competition across his career. Messi sits in second place with 129 goals but he averaged more goals per 90 (0.86) than Ronaldo. Messi scored 120 of his Champions League goals with Barcelona and he scored in 18 consecutive campaigns from the 2005/06 season.
While Ronaldo and Messi are highly unlikely to add to their goal tallies, Robert Lewandowski could still add to his 103 goals. Barcelona are doing well in this season’s competition and the Polish striker will have ambitions of pushing on after recently becoming a centurion. Lewandowski is also Bayern Munich’s record European goalscorer with 69 goals. Karim Benzema, who sits fourth in the all-time list, will have to settle for 90 career goals in the competition, after departing European football for Saudi Arabia in 2023. The French striker famously scored 15 goals in the competition in a single campaign with Real Madrid, who were crowned champions after beating Liverpool in the final in 2022. Raúl is the third former Real Madrid player in the top five with the Spanish legend netting 71 goals in the competition and he was the first ever player to reach 50 goals.
Will Mbappé or Haaland become the Champions League all-time top scorer?
Mbappé (55) has scored more goals than Haaland (49) in the Champions League but the Manchester City striker’s scoring rate is far superior – the Norwegian averages more than a goal a game in the competition. The former PSG striker was the quickest player to reach 40 goals in the competition (59 games) before Haaland smashed his record by reaching the milestone in just 35 games.
Haaland has the best goals per 90 record in the history of the tournament, which currently stands at an incredible 1.14 goals per 90 minutes of Champions League football and the 24-year-old will likely smash Ronaldo’s record if he continues to play in the Champions League for the next decade. In comparison, Mbappé’s goalscoring record is also very impressive but is notably less than Haaland’s, as it currently stands at 0.71 goals per 90 minutes. As such, while Mbappé may only be 26 and could feasibly play in the competition for the next ten years with high hopes of closing in on Messi and Ronaldo’s totals, Haaland’s scoring rate means he’s the favourite to become the Champions League all-time top goalscorer during his career.