Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe scored his first Champions League goal for the Royal Whites in their Champions League season opener against Stuttgart, stroking home an easy chance created by Aurelien Tchouameni and Rodrygo Goes to give Real a 1-0 lead over Die Schwaben in a game they’d win 3-1.
Mbappe was already scoring goals in the Champions League at a rapid pace for PSG despite never winning a final. With that goal against Stuttgart, Mbappe now has a whopping 49 goals in club football’s biggest competition.
Those 49 goals actually tie Alfredo Di Stefano for the 10th-most all-time goals in the competition once called the European Cup in Di Stefano’s era, so Mbappe has already cracked the top 10 at the age of 25.
He will only need two more goals to surpass fellow Frenchman Thierry Henry in 8th. After that, Thomas Muller is currently sitting on 54 in seventh, though the Bayern Munich attacker is still playing.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy is also closeby in sixth with 56 goals, so Kylian Mbappe could legitimately surpass him if he meets his own personal expectations in the 2024/25 Champions League season.
It gets more difficult to crack the top five, though, as Real Madrid legend Raul has 71 career Champions League goals. Above him are two significantly higher players, Real Madrid legend and former French teammate Karim Benzema in fourth with 90 and then Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski is still adding to his 94 goals in third place.
Mbappe’s idol Cristiano Ronaldo sits at the top alone with 140 goals, and Barcelona legend Lionel Messi is in second with 129 goals, which is also beyond absurd.
By the way, Mbappe’s 0.66 goals per game ratio is only beaten by Messi, Cristiano, Lewandowski, and Van Nistelrooy in the top 10, and of those four, only the GOATs Messi and Ronaldo can say that they are more well-rounded than Mbappe.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.