Mbappe reaches 300 career goals faster than Messi and Ronaldo

With his 17th career hat-trick, Mbappe brought his season tally to 21 goals in 19 matches. It was the PSG star’s 46th goal in 74 international appearances

France’s Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring its twelfth goal. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Kylian Mbappe reached a personal milestone, scoring his 300th career goal as he grabbed a hat-trick in France’s 14-0 rout of Gibraltar in an EURO 2024 qualifier match on Sunday.

Already a World Cup winner at 18, Mbappe has been a generational talent, and his goalscoring prowess has been likened to that of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

As the Frenchman reaches his 300th career goal, it brings into question how fast he has reached the feat compared to Messi and Ronaldo.

When Mbappe achieved the feat against Gibraltar, he was 24 years and 333 days. It puts him ahead of Ronaldo and Messi, as both were significantly older when they achieved this feat.

Ronaldo was 27 when he clocked 300 career goals during his peak years in Real Madrid. Messi had better stats than Ronaldo, but at the age of 25, the Argentine had only 279 goals, compared to Mbappe’s 300 at 24.

“What this kid is doing is really out of this world,” said former French international and World Cup winner Thierry Henry, who is now in charge of leading the new generation of France’s players as coach of the Under-21 team. “It’s just unbelievable.”

Mbappe was often compared to Henry earlier in his career. Both attended France’s Clairefontaine academy before playing as left-wingers at Monaco, where each won the French league titles as a teenager. Mbappe then replicated another of Henry’s accomplishments when he won the 2018 World Cup in his first major tournament with France. Henry won the 1998 tournament.

With his 17th career hat-trick, Mbappe brought his season tally to 21 goals in 19 matches. It was the PSG star’s 46th goal in 74 international appearances. He is now just five goals behind Henry on France’s all-time scoring list and 10 off teammate Olivier Giroud’s national record total.

How close is Haaland?

Erling Haaland has 254 career goals at the age of 23 and has a little under two years to rack his tally up to catch up to Mbappe.