FOR years football fans have gone back and forth arguing between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for who was the best in the world.
But after both Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe scored twice in the Champions League last night, there appears to have been a changing of the guard.
With Ronaldo now 37 and warming the Manchester United bench, and Messi getting on at 35, everyone knew the time was coming.
Now debate is raging over who is the world’s best out of Manchester City striker Haaland, 22, or Paris Saint-Germain star Mbappe, 23.
And the stats show that the pair are in a league of their own.
Haaland has scored a ridiculous 12 goals in his last seven games for City, while Mbappe has kicked off the campaign with an equally impressive nine goals in six games.
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While there is still some way to go to overhaul Ronaldo and his five Ballon d’Ors, plus Messi and his seven Ballon d’Ors, Haaland and Mbappe are heading in the right direction.
In the Champions League, goal machine Haaland has scored an outrageous 25 times in just 20 games.
After the same amount of matches in the competition, Messi had scored eight times, whereas Ronaldo was still on zero.
Mbappe on the other hand had 12 goals to his name after 20 appearances in Europe’s elite competition.
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In reaching 25 Champions League goals at 22 years and 47 days, Haaland broke the record set by Mbappe when he was 22 years and 80 days.
The Frenchman now has 35 goals and 20 assists to his name in just 54 Champions League outings, averaging a goal every 120.3 minutes in Europe.
Haaland though is on another level when it comes to puting the ball in the back of the net.
He averages a staggering one goal every 61.3 minutes in the competition.
The pair also perform week in, week out in their respective leagues too.
In 188 Ligue 1 appearances, Mbappe has netted 142 times, averaging a goal every 96.1 minutes.
But Haaland’s minutes per goal ratio in Europe’s top five leagues is even better.
In 73 appearances across the Bundesliga and Premier League, he has netted 72 goals, averaging one goal every 81.5 minutes.
However, the City star is yet to reach Mbappe’s lofty heights on the silverware front.
Haaland has three trophies to his name from his time in Germany and Austria with Borussia Dortmund and RB Salzburg.
But you would expect him to add to that tally this year with City.
Mbappe meanwhile has already won 13 trophies at club level, plus the World Cup and Nations League with France.
As good as the stats may be, neither Haaland or Mbappe have enjoyed the individual success that Messi and Ronaldo had at this stage in their career.
Messi won the first of his SEVEN Ballon d’Ors when he was 22, the same age Haaland is now, while Ronaldo won the first of his five when he was 23, which is the same age Mbappe is now.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
