Kylian Mbappe Hits New Champions League Milestone
Kylian Mbappé’s mission to top the scoring charts in every competition going continues apace with the Real Madrid striker entering the top five in the Champions League’s all-time standings.
Mbappé opened the scoring for Madrid in their League Phase opener against Inter Milan, with José Mourinho earning a 2–1 win on his first European match back as manager at the Bernabéu.
The Frenchman pounced on sloppy defending to slot home after just a quarter of an hour, while Federico Valverde added a second nine minutes later. Inter fought back, but Carlos Augusto’s second-half strike proved nothing more than a consolation on the night.
Mbappe’s strike takes him up to 71 goals in the Champions League, drawing him level with another Real Madrid legend: Raúl.
The two players now sit joint fifth in the all-time top scorers rankings, though Mbappé boasts a superior goals to games ratio (0.72 to 0.50) and is highly unlikely to be finished with his goalscoring.
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Champions League All-Time Leading Scorers
Rank | Player | Goals | Appearances | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 140 | 183 | 0.77 |
2 | Lionel Messi | 129 | 163 | 0.79 |
3 | Robert Lewandowski | 109 | 144 | 0.76 |
4 | Karim Benzema | 90 | 152 | 0.59 |
5 | Kylian Mbappé | 71 | 99 | 0.72 |
– | Raúl | 71 | 142 | 0.50 |
7 | Erling Haaland | 59 | 59 | 1 |
8 | Thomas Müller | 57 | 163 | 0.35 |
9 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | 56 | 73 | 0.77 |
10 | Harry Kane | 55 | 71 | 0.77 |
Mbappé, who will celebrate 100 appearances on his next Champions League outing, is the only player in the top five never to have actually won the competition. Of the current top ten, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Harry Kane are the two others who have never lifted the trophy.
He needs another 19 goals to catch fourth-placed Karim Benzema (yet another Madrid alum), while he would be required to double his current tally to unseat Cristiano Ronaldo as the overall leader.
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Despite only making it to the quarterfinal stage with Madrid last season, Mbappé ended 2025–26 as the Champions League’s top scorer with 15 goals—a single season tally only ever bettered by Ronaldo.
Adding to his credentials as one of history’s best-ever finishers, the 27-year-old also became the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer this summer, overtaking Lionel Messi with his 22 goals.
‘No Longer a Novelty’—Mbappé Hits Back at Critics
Speaking to France Football, Mbappé—who is among the frontrunners for this year’s Ballon d’Or award—pointedly fire back at those who have criticized his lack of defensive contribution and work rate.
“I think it’s not normal, but that’s the life of someone who has been close to excellence for years. I’m no longer in the realm of novelty.
“Everyone has known for years what I can do. And I think that’s where we enter the realm of human nature. It’s human to always look at what someone doesn’t do. When someone has been doing it for ten years, we stop looking at what they do. We know they can do it. So we always try to look at what they don’t do. From that point on, it’s not something I take personally.”
He added: “Everyone has their own point of view, but I think the goal of football is to score goals, to score one more than the opponent. A player who scores goals will never be a problem for a team, because I've never seen a team win titles without scoring any goals.”
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