How Kylian Mbappé marked the history of Ligue 1 in eight seasons, 7 titles and 191 goals

He did not score, but Kylian Mbappé played his last match with Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) on Saturday May 25: a victory against Olympique Lyonnais in the Coupe de France. He should soon announce his departure for Real Madrid.

“I play to make history and I have always said that I wanted to make history in France, in the capital of my country, in my city”, the striker said in March 2023, while the suspense of a possible extension was already shaking the world of football. In just over eight years of professional career, he was crowned French champion seven times (once with AS Monaco in his early days, then six times with PSG) and broke multiple French football records: best Ligue 1 scorer for six consecutive years, top scorer for PSG, top scorer for a French club in the Champions League…

Experienced by some as a significant loss for French football, his departure for a foreign club could be an opportunity to seek with another club the major trophy that he is missing, the Champions League, and thus to get closer to a possible Ballon d’Or.

Top scorer in PSG history

At only 24 years old, the native of Bondy entered the legend of Paris-Saint-Germain on March 4, 2023 by surpassing the record of Edinson Cavani, who had scored 200 goals in the Parisian jersey (all competitions combined). Since then, Kylian Mbappé has put around fifty balls in the back of the net to establish his status in the history of the club.

Note that Zlatan Ibrahimovic, although he scored fewer goals in the blue and red jersey, was more effective since he posted a ratio of 0.87 goals per match played, compared to 0.83 for the Frenchman.

Top scorer in the French championship six years in a row

If Kylian Mbappé took on an international stature at PSG, it was in Monaco that he made his debut in Ligue 1. His first goal in the league dates back to February 20, 2016. At 17 years and two months, he scored a goal with his left foot in added time against Troyes. The first in a series of 191 goals in 246 first division matches.

From the 2016-2017 season, the Monegasque striker climbed into the top 5 of the best scorers in the championship with 15 goals. But the following season, on loan to Paris-Saint-Germain, he fell to 13^e place (13 goals in 28 matches). Well established in the capital club, he then became top scorer in the championship for six consecutive years.

Top scorer for a French club in the Champions League

Seven years after his first goal in the Champions League with Monaco on the Manchester City pitch on February 21, 2017, Kylian Mbappé is today the top scorer in the history of a French club in C1. By scoring on November 2, 2022 during the match between PSG and Juventus Turin, he became https://twitter.com/OptaJean/status/1587903491150090240 at 23 years, 10 months and 13 days, surpassing his former teammate Lionel Messi (24 years, 4 months and 8 days in November 2011).

Seventh top scorer in Ligue 1 history

From the 2018-2019 season until 2024, six consecutive years, Kylian Mbappé occupies first place among Ligue 1 scorers. He is better than Jean-Pierre Papin, striker for Olympique de Marseille and Ballon d ‘gold 1991, who had held this place for five years, between 1987 and 1992.

At 25, Mbappé climbed to sixth place in the French championship scorers’ ranking, behind several stars of the 1970s, such as the Italian-Argentinian Delio Onnis (who played in Reims, Monaco, Tours and Toulon), the French Bernard Lacombe (Lyon, Saint-Etienne, and Bordeaux) or the Argentinian Carlos Bianchi (Reims, Paris, Strasbourg).

The kid from Bondy is also the only player in the history of the French championship to have been both top scorer and best passer over an entire season (2021-2022). Another record in Ligue 1: he scored the fastest goal in history (8 seconds against Lille on August 21, 2022), tied with Michel Rio (SM Caen, 1992).