Kylian Mbappe Set to Match 48-Year-Old La Liga Record

The forward has scored a lot of goals despite a lot of problems at Real Madrid.

Kylian Mbappé has been poor since the winter break. | Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Kylian Mbappé is one game away from retaining the Pichichi Trophy, the annual award given to the top scorer in La Liga. It will be some individual consolation for the team’s poor season, during which Los Blancos fans have turned on the prolific Frenchman.

Mbappé leads the race ahead of the final matchday of 2025–26, scoring 24 goals in the league. His unlikely, closest rival in the Pichichi stakes is Mallorca frontman Vedat Muriqi, who has 22.

A hat-trick from Muriqi when Mallorca face Real Oviedo in game 38 on Saturday could see the Kosovo national team striker overtake Mbappé if he fails to add his tally when Real Madrid host Athletic Club at the same time. In the event of a tie, Mbappé’s greater number of assists on the season—currently five to one—would tip the balance in his favor.

The thing is, it’s not out of the question that Muriqi does that. Mallorca need to beat Real Oviedo, who were guaranteed last place some time ago, to have any chance of beating relegation. So there is plenty riding on his match, but very little for Mbappé to get motivated for.

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Mbappe’s Season Stalled Midway Through

Kylian Mbappé was unplayable before Christmas. | Gongora/NurPhoto/Getty Images

In truth, Mbappé should have had the Pichichi Trophy sewn up long ago. Last season, the former Paris Saint-Germain star won it with 31 goals while simultaneously claiming the European Golden Shoe as Europe’s overall top scorer. At one stage, he looked like shattering that tally, having netted 13 in his first 11 La Liga appearances this season, and 23 by the time of his 22nd league match.

But a knee injury that first flared up at the end of 2025 halted his momentum and Mbappé has only scored one La Liga goal in the last three months. It was only his blistering first half of the season that has put the Frenchman in the picture for the Pichichi Trophy at all.

Mbappé’s only league goal since early February came in April’s 2–1 win over Alavés. But he’s since missed two more matches injured, including the decisive Clásico on May 10, and only made his return to the starting lineup against Sevilla on Sunday. He failed to score.

The one thing that may save Mbappé is that Muriqi’s rate of goals, although a little more evenly spread over the season, has also slowed. The 32-year-old, whose previous best top-flight season produced 17 goals for Çaykur Rizespor in Türkiye in 2018–19, only has one in his last six matches.

Momentum is on neither player’s side, which obviously favors Mbappé as the current leader.

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Mbappe Smoked in European Golden Shoe Race

The European Golden Shoe is going elsewhere this season. | Alberto Gardin/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

But even though Mbappé looks set to claim a second-straight Pichichi Trophy, which would see him become the first back-to-back winner in his first two seasons in Spanish soccer since Valencia’s Mario Kempes in 1976–77 and 1977–78, he isn’t close to keeping the European Golden Shoe.

Last season, Mbappé became the first French recipient of the continental prize since Thierry Henry in 2004–05. His 24 goals this season are still good enough to place third in the standings, two goals—four points—behind Erling Haaland in second. But Harry Kane is 12 goals ahead thanks to a blistering campaign in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.

The 32-year-old has 36 goals in only 31 appearances and will claim his second Golden Shoe after a first in 2023–24. The sole other English winner in the award’s entire 48-year history was Sunderland’s Kevin Phillips in 1999–2000.

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