Kylian Mbappe celebrates after scoring a goal for Paris Saint-Germain in Champions League play against Borussia Dortmund on Dec. 13. 8️⃣ (Martin Meissner / Associated Press)
For more than a decade Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been at the center of 8️⃣ a fierce and largely unsettled debate over who is the greatest player in soccer history.
A decade from now, they might 8️⃣ still be part of that debate. Only the question then may be more like “who were those two guys who 8️⃣ came before Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland?”
That might sound like a bit of a stretch, but consider the evidence.
Ronaldo, 38, 8️⃣ and Messi, 36, rewrote the record books, redefined greatness and took the sport to new plateaus. Soccer is more popular, 8️⃣ more profitable and better-played than at any point in its history, and Ronaldo and Messi, who defined an era if 8️⃣ not an entire sport, are big reasons why.
Playing much of their careers against one another in Spain’s La Liga — 8️⃣ Messi for Barcelona and Ronaldo for Real Madrid — they pushed one another, combining for 19 league championships, four Champions 8️⃣ League titles and 13 Ballon d’Or awards, achieving levels of greatness together neither could have reached alone.
Yet at comparable points 8️⃣ in their careers, Mbappe and Haaland have been even better. And it’s not beyond reason to think they could stay 8️⃣ there.
Start with the numbers. Portugal’s Ronaldo is the most prolific scorer in history with 870 goals for five clubs — 8️⃣ Sporting CP, Manchester United, Juventus and Al Nassr, in addition to Real Madrid — and country. Messi, an Argentine who 8️⃣ played at Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami after leaving Barcelona, has 821 goals while the once-incomparable Pele is a distant 8️⃣ third at 762, according to the Zurich-based International Federation of Football History and Statistics.
Ronaldo and Messi also rank in the 8️⃣ top 10 all-time in assists, meaning each has contributed to more than 1,110 goals in their careers.
Mbappe and Haaland are 8️⃣ on pace to outproduce both. Less than a week past his 25th birthday, Mbappe already has 306 goals and 127 8️⃣ assists, according to Football365, more than either Messi or Ronaldo had at the same age. Haaland, who won’t turn 24 8️⃣ until next summer, has 232 goals for club and country, is also better than Messi and Ronaldo at the same 8️⃣ age.
Manchester City's Erling Haaland, right, tries to control the ball while defended by Aston Villa's Pau Torres during an English 8️⃣ Premier League game on Dec. 6. (Rui Vieira / Associated Press)
Messi and Ronaldo were just getting started, though. In his 8️⃣ age-24 season, 2011-12, Messi scored a record 73 goals in 60 games for Barcelona, beginning a string that would see 8️⃣ him average more than 54 club goals a season over six years. Ronaldo was just one goal a season behind 8️⃣ during that span — then went on to score more than 400 times after turning 30.
Can Mbappe and Haaland match 8️⃣ that? Why not? They are just entering their prime.
Numbers don’t tell the whole story, however; it’s what those numbers add 8️⃣ up to that really determines greatness.
As a 17-year-old Mbappe led Monaco to the Ligue 1 title and the Champions League 8️⃣ semifinals. He won five more French titles in six seasons at Paris Saint-Germain — two alongside Messi — and reached 8️⃣ the Champions League semis twice. On the international level he’s already played in two World Cup finals, winning one. He 8️⃣ also led the 2024 tournament in scoring with eight goals and tied for second in 2024 with four.
Only five players 8️⃣ in history have scored more World Cup goals and only one man has played in more finals than Mbappe. Did 8️⃣ we mention he’s just 25?
Messi had won five La Liga titles and three Champions League crowns before his 25th birthday 8️⃣ but it took him 17 years to reach his second World Cup final and win his only title. There could 8️⃣ be more to come Mbappe: Playing on a French team ranked second in the world in an era when the 8️⃣ World Cup is expanding, he could wind up being the most dominant player in tournament history.
"Messi has done what he 8️⃣ has done throughout his career and over so many years and he is fantastic. He has been the best for 8️⃣ several years," Fabio Capello, who won seven league championships and a Champions League title as a coach, said last spring 8️⃣ at the end of the final European season to feature either Messi or Ronaldo. "But at the moment Mbappe is 8️⃣ better. He's strong, he's quick, he scores goals.”
Like Messi, Mbappe is a brilliant passer who can score himself — he’s 8️⃣ on pace for his sixth straight 30-goal season and sixth straight league scoring title — or set up teammates — 8️⃣ two years ago, he led the league in goals and assists, his 17 helpers the most in a French season 8️⃣ in six years.
Read more: Commentary: MLS made a colossal mistake to drop U.S. Open Cup. How does the league not 8️⃣ get that?
Inexplicably Mbappe, the youngest player ever nominated for a Ballon d’Or, has never won soccer’s top individual prize, finishing 8️⃣ as high as third in the voting just once. That was this year, when Messi claimed the prize for a 8️⃣ record eighth time.
Haaland, second in the Ballon d’Or balloting, has seen his brilliance so far confined to his club career. 8️⃣ Last season, his first in the Premier League following two seasons in Norway and three others shared between the Austrian 8️⃣ and German Bundesligas, Haaland guided Manchester City to a European treble, scoring 52 times in 53 matches. He already has 8️⃣ 19 goals in 22 appearances in all competitions this season, trailing Mbappe, who has two more goals in the same 8️⃣ number of games. Over his last four full seasons, Haaland has scored 178 club goals in 179 appearances.
But Norway, his 8️⃣ national team, hasn’t played in a World Cup this century and made its only appearance in the European Championship a 8️⃣ month before Haaland was born. As a result, he’s played just 29 times for his country, scoring 27 goals. Mbappe 8️⃣ has played more than twice as often for France, scoring 46 times, according to the German website Transfermarkt.
Manchester City coach 8️⃣ Pep Guardiola, who managed Messi in Barcelona and now has Haaland in England, calls Messi the “most complete player I’ve 8️⃣ ever seen, in vision, in passes, in dribbling, in competitiveness. That makes it difficult [to compare] with anyone.”
“Hopefully Erling can 8️⃣ be close like Leo,” he added. “It will be great for us, for the future of the team. But I 8️⃣ don’t help anyone by comparing to the Argentine player.”
Can Mbappe and Haaland continue at this pace? In a word, yeah.
Staying 8️⃣ free of injury will be important. Messi has played fewer than 36 games just once in the last 17 years. 8️⃣ The last time Ronaldo played fewer than 31 games in a season he was a teenager in Portugal. The continued 8️⃣ expansion of club and national team calendars will be both an opportunity and a danger for Mbappe and Haaland; an 8️⃣ opportunity because more games means more chances to score and more titles to win but a danger because it raises 8️⃣ the possibility of injury. Haaland, a physical beast at 6-foot-4 and 194 pounds, seems especially well-suited to handle the additional 8️⃣ workload.
Messi and Ronaldo have set the bar high, but it’s a height both Mbappe and Haaland might someday clear.
⚽ You 8️⃣ have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and 8️⃣ shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the Corner of the Galaxy podcast.
This 8️⃣ story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
