Don’t get me wrong, I actually like the guy, he is a wonderful footballer, I even own a France shirt of his. His NT career has been AMAZING. He didn’t do much in the Euros, but on the two World Cups he has played he was incredible, he has the potential to finish his career as one of the best WC players of all time, if not even the best if he’s a little lucky.
But, if we only focus on his club career, has he achieved anything as great? At his age, Messi and Ronaldo had already won UCL, Ballon d’Or (Messi multiple ones), threepeating the two best leagues in the world and destroying every team in the world in general. Haaland who is his main rival according to the media and 2 years younger than him, left Norway, played in Austria, joined Dortmund, then joined Man City and finally won a treble, finishing 2nd in the Ballon d’Or. All that in a matter of 4 years.
Meanwhile, Mbappe has been playing in the exact same league for 8 years now, a league that’s currently ranked 6th-5th, with potential to be even 7th. There’s nothing wrong with staying in the same team, even in a less competitive league, if you actually dominate the UCL. Even PSG board members have stated that UCL has been their number one priority for years. But, the reality is very far from that target: round of 16 exits, humiliations, now they might even not get out of their group. Mbappe has been very underwhelming in the UCL this season, with 3 goals, 2 of them penalties. The only time PSG came actually close to winning the competition was 2020, but Neymar was their main man, Mbappe hadn’t scored a single goal past the group stages. So, his best UCL season so far remains… 2016/17 for Monaco, since then it has been underwhelming for him, or his team, or both.
One might say that UCL isn’t the only competition out there, surely. Mbappe has been Ligue 1’s top scorer for 6 consecutive seasons and has won the competition 6 times. It’s very impressive. Or, is it? Mbappe scored 29 league goals last season, while 32 year old Lacazette scored 27, playing for 7th placed Lyon. In comparison, Lacazette had scored 5 goals in 30 EPL games in the previous season (2021/22) and had never even scored 15 league goals in EPL in a single season. Many people memed him and called him “Alexander Lack-of-threat”. But surely, he might have found his good old self now, it has nothing to do with Ligue 1. Let’s see other players who scored more than 20 goals in the competition last season: David, Openda, Balogun, Habib Diallo. Very decent players, especially Openda, but not exactly what one would call “world class”. Compare that to Messi and Ronaldo competing with each other and Suarez, Villa, Eto’O, Griezmann etc for the golden boot, or Haaland competing against the likes of Kane, Salah, Son etc and you can see the difference. In 2021/22 Mbappe competed with Ben Yedder, Terrier and Moussa Dembele. Other players that scored 20 or similar amount of goals in that league include Nicolas Pepe, Mariano Diaz and Balottelli. The definition of meme players. So, Mbappe’s numbers in Ligue 1 barely matter, the competition is bad and most players who score tons of goals there fail miserably in other leagues.
So, if we only look at his club career, so far it’s just a guy scoring a lot of league goals outside of the top leagues and nothing more than that.
🙄
Wow another Mbappe/Haaland/Messi/Ronaldo based thread. Feeling bold today are we?
Can we please stop comparing players to Messi and Ronaldo all the time it’s extremely cringe and never leads to interesting debates. Also Mbappe has been world class in the UCL a fair number of times. Scoring decisive goals against Bayern, Madrid and Barcelona (hat trick). Also ligue 1 is a low scoring league not because strikers are bad but because defenses are extremely solid and physical, you would know this if you cared to watch some games.
Mbappe made a mistake by not joining Real Madrid two seasons ago. He’d have probably won the ballondor. He’s player with potential to become the best in the world but unfortunately needs to be in a world class team. PSG sure had Neymar and Messi for a couple of years and the only other world class player is Marquinhos but it isn’t enough they need atleast minimum 7/8 world class players like Current City/Prime Barcelona/Real Madrid or Bayern. Last season on his way to the treble Haaland had a stacked world-class team. 5 of them featured in ballondor top 10 last season alone and all of them were multiple time nominees for the ballondor. Arguably one of the best midfielders ever in KDB, Gundogan Rodri Bernardo Dias Ederson and list goes on. Even City bench is stacked with players like WC winning striker Alvarez and a Pl legend like Mahrez and others like Walker, Foden, Laporte have won multiple trophies. Above all managed by PEP. Mbappe could have had similar support in Real Madrid. Still there are lots of chances for him but only if he leaves PSG. And joins either Real Bayern or Liverpool.
liver what now? i don’t think Mbappe is the type of player that qualifies as a Liverpool target lol.
He is more suited to Liverpool playing style than Real.
Fuck it, he can play in any club no matter the playing style, he has everything
Trying to organise a proper press whilst one of the players won’t do any work off the ball is next to impossible, as opposing teams will break it easily.
That’s why Peps City won’t touch him, and why Liverpool wouldn’t either. Too expensive, needs special treatment and would be a tactical liability.
Speaking as a Liverpool fan. We don’t want him. His wage requests would be enormous, and our finances would be fucked. He has the wrong attitude, and we have enough Forwards.
Found the closeted madridistas
Why does he have to be compared to the two greatest of all time when he’s not even halfway through his career.