From a statistical point of view, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland present numbers above Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
For more than fifteen years, Lionel Messi And Cristiano Ronaldo dominated Europe and particularly the Champions League. In addition to their nine trophies combined, the two stars are in the first two places in the scorer rankings (141 for the Portuguese, 129 for the Argentinian) and in the assisting rankings (42 for Ronaldo, 40 for Messi).
Haaland and Mbappé above the rest
It seems difficult to imagine seeing these two monsters being joined in the near future as the gap with their pursuers is so great, but Kylian Mbappé And Erling Haaland are still well on their way to entering this sphere of unique players. At 24 and 23 years old respectively, they are already in the top 20 of the best scorers in the history of the competition and were once again decisive this week in the premier competition.
1-5 – The five players with the fewest minutes per goal or assist in the UEFA Champions League since 2003-04 (min. 10 starts):
Minutes per goal or assist
61 – Erling Haaland
79 – Kylian Mbappé
81 – Lionel Messi
84 – Gabriel Jesus
87 – Robert LewandowskiExclusive.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 30, 2023
From a statistical point of view, they are even ahead for the moment. According to statistics fromOpta Jean, Haaland is the player who needs the fewest minutes to be decisive in the competition since the 2003-2004 season since he scores or delivers an assist every 61 minutes on average. Second in this ranking… Kylian Mbappé, who is decisive every 79 minutes. Lionel Messi completes the podium with a ratio of 81 minutes, while Cristiano Ronaldo, the most capped player in the C1, is decisive every 88 minutes on average. It remains to be seen whether the Norwegian and the Frenchman will manage to be decisive and consistent in the long term as Messi and CR7 were.