‘I need to score 400 more’ – Kylian Mbappé sets sights on Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

Kylian Mbappé (26) reached a historic milestone on Thursday night. The Real Madrid forward captained France as they beat Ukraine 4-0 to book their place in next summer’s FIFA World Cup. He netted a brace in the encounter. It takes the AS Monaco academy product’s total career goals to 400. 

55 of those goals have come for Les Bleus. It leaves Mbappé on the verge of beating Olivier Giroud’s record of 57 goals. Fitness permitting, he will likely bypass the Lille OSC forward very soon, perhaps even before the World Cup, and perhaps even against Azerbaijan over the weekend. 

In any case, Mbappé is looking to quickly add to his total of 400 goals in order to keep himself in the conversation with the greats. “If you had told me [that I’ve reached 400 career goals] 20 years ago, I would have said fantastic, but there are two, one who had 900 (Lionel Messi) and the other who has 950 (Cristiano Ronaldo). I’ll need to score 400 more in order to be noticed a bit more, but yes, it’s a symbolic number. 400 doesn’t allow me to stay in the picture and in the circle of players that have shocked people,” Mbappé told TF1 after the win over Ukraine. 

It is a milestone that he has reached earlier than the likes of Messi, who reached the 400 mark at 27 years and 95 days, and Ronaldo, who did so at the age of 28 years and 335 days.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle