7 Greatest Kylian Mbappe Moments (Ranked)

Kylian Mbappe is an imperious footballer. At the age of just 25 years old, he has had the career of someone you would have expected to have been playing for 20 years.

In a career that is still just nine years old, he has broken records, scored staggering goals, and performed feats of heroism for his clubs and his country. He also ushered in a new generation of young superstars that includes the likes of Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham to become one of the pre-eminent names in the post-Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo era of football.

Following confirmation of his move to Real Madrid after a prolonged transfer saga, here are the seven greatest moments in Mbappe’s career, beginning from his start in professional football, to his one-man show at the 2022 World Cup with France. Will he add to these memories with his time at the Santiago Bernabeu over the coming years?

7 AS Monaco Breakthrough

The AS Monaco academy is a conveyor belt of talent as they have produced many names over the years for the viewing pleasure of football fans around the globe. Some of the most notable graduates of their academy include Arsenal hero Emmanuel Petit, Euro 2000 winning goalscorer David Trezeguet, and legendary French defender Lilliam Thuram. Arguably their greatest ever academy product is the Premier League’s greatest ever icon, Thierry Henry. Though, of course, some at Monaco might argue that he has been dethroned.

Mbappe emerged as the heir to Henry’s title as the king of French football when he broke records for AS Monaco during his debut season. At the age of 16 years and 47 days, he became the youngest player in Les Monagasques history to make an appearance for the club, as a 88th minute substitute against SM Caen. Two months later, he would score his first goal for the club, a stoppage time goal in a 3-1 league win over Troyes. Both of these feats broke the record set by Henry in the mid 1990s.

But it was during the next season that he would become the undisputed heir to the throne when he had an absolutely unbelievable breakthrough season for Monaco. In 2016-17 at the ages of just 17 and 18-years-old, he fired his club to a Ligue 1 title, a Champions League semi-final appearance and a Coupe de la Ligue final. In 44 appearances in all competitions, he scored 26 goals and provided seven assists. It is safe to say that everyone knew his name at that time.

6 Inaugural Kopa Trophy Winner

In 2018, Mbappe became the first winner of what is basically the Ballon d’Or for players under the age of 21. The Kopa Trophy is presented by the prestigious France Football and is named after legendary French forward Raymond Kopa who had passed away one year prior, in 2017. It is also the worldwide version of UEFA’s Golden Boy award, which is limited to European players.

This award came after a stunning 2018 where he won a domestic treble with PSG and began his journey towards winning four Ligue 1 player of the year awards in a row. Against Lyon, on October 8th of 2018, he scored four goals in 13 minutes during a 5-0 thrashing and became the youngest player in the last 45 years to score four goals in one Ligue 1 game.

The accolade was also the first signal that a new era in football was emerging, though the players who came second and third in voting, Justin Kluivert and Christian Pulisic, obviously have not achieved anywhere near the same feats that Mbappe has. Subsequent winners have included Barcelona midfielders Pedri and Gavi, and the most recent winner was Real Madrid’s newest galactico, Jude Bellingham.

5 World’s Most Expensive Teenager

In the summer of 2017, Mbappe made the switch from Monaco to PSG for a fee of £163m. This made him the most expensive teenager in football history and the second most expensive player in football history after Neymar, who also moved to PSG in the summer of 2017 for a fee of £198m.

It can’t be debated as to whether it was worth every penny or not, because it absolutely was, given the sheer amount of trophies Mbappé has won with the club, the sheer amount of individual awards he has lifted, and the sheer amount of goals he has slotted home for the Parisian side.

He has become an icon of Paris playing for the club that resides in the city of his birth, and his performances at PSG made him an undroppable option for the French national team where he has subsequently become a national hero. You can’t put a price on that.

4 PSG’s All-Time Top Goal-Scorer

PSG might have only become the giants they are now in 2011 after the club was taken over by Qatari Sports Investment, but their 41 years of history before that saw players like Pauleta, Dominique Rocheteau, and Francois M’Pele, grace the pitch of the Parc de Princes scoring 109, 100, and 95 goals for the club.

The takeover saw players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, and Neymar all enjoy fantastic spells, with the club, scoring 156, 200, and 118 goals each respectively.

However, it is the still relatively young Mbappe who is Paris St-Germain’s all-time record goalscorer with 256 goals. He has achieved that within just six and a half seasons at the Parisian side, averaging 35 goals each season that he has played for Les Rouges et Blues. Only Ibrahimovic’s average of 39 goals per season can compete with the Frenchman on that front.

3 2018 FIFA World Cup

The 2018 World Cup was fantastic, as is always the case with football’s most sought after and prestigious international trophy. Breakout performances included Denis Cheryshev, who scored four goals for the host nation Russia, Yerry Mina, whose performances led Colombia to a valiant defeat at the hands of England on penalties, and of course, Mbappe, who scored four goals, including one in the final to win the FIFA Best Young Player award.

He opened his account for the tournament in France’s second group stage game against Peru. It was a close finish from possibly not even one yard out. He then sunk Argentina in the round of 16 with two goals, one that went through the legs of Argentine goalkeeper Franco Armani before scoring his second just four minutes later. He added his fourth goal against Croatia in the final of the tournament, finding himself unmarked outside the box before driving an effort into the bottom left-hand corner.

It was one of the most memorable breakthrough tournaments for any young player at a World Cup, rivaling Thomas Muller’s performances in 2010, and Michael Owen’s in 1998.

2 2020 Domestic Quadruple with PSG

The 2019-20 footballing season is mostly remembered for its interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic, though Mbappe and PSG will mostly remember it for the four, though very nearly five, trophies they won that season.

In August 2019, the Frenchman scored against Rennes in the Trophee des Championes to help PSG win their first trophy of the season. However, the Ligue 1 season prematurely ended due to the pandemic, though it is highly unlikely that PSG would have finished in any position other than first that season as they had an almost certainly unassailable 12 point lead over second place Marseille. Mbappe was actually forced off after a Loic Perrin challenge – for which the Saint-Etienne defender was sent off – with injury during the Coupe de France final, but his four goals in three games during that year’s tournament were vital to PSG progressing to and winning the final. This ruled him out of the Coupe de la Ligue final as well, but PSG triumphed nonetheless to win their fourth trophy of the year.

The one trophy that got away that season, however, was the UEFA Champions League. This was the closest the Parisian club has ever got to winning the prestigious European tournament, and likely ever will do if Mbappe makes the forever rumoured switch to Real Madrid. He scored five goals on the way to Lisbon but missed a huge chance in the final.

1 2022 World Cup Heroics

Unlike 2018, France did not win this edition of the World Cup despite Mbappe putting in one of the greatest individual tournaments in the history of the World Cup.

He improved upon his 2018 breakthrough tournament, scoring eight goals and providing two assists, as France finished as runners-up to Argentina. This included two goals in normal time in the final to drag France back from a 2-0 deficit to send the game to extra time. Mbappe then equalised again in the 118th minute to send the game to penalties, and complete his hat-trick. This was only the second ever hat-trick in a World Cup final after Sir Geoff Hurst’s for England against West Germany in 1966.

This was the second-greatest individual World Cup tournament of the 21st century, after Lionel Messi’s seven goals and three assists during the same tournament. Mbappe’s eight goals does make it likely for the Frenchman to absolutely obliterate Miroslav Klose’s World Cup goalscoring record of 16 should he perform well at the four more tournaments he could feasibly play during his career. He currently sits on 12 goals.