November 03, (THEWILL) – Kylian Mbappe made history on Wednesday, by becoming the UEFA Champions League’s youngest player ever to reach 40 goals, getting ahead of teammate, Lionel Messi.
The 23-year-old added another goal to his season’s total of seven goals in the competition as Paris Saint-Germain overcame Juventus 2-1 at the Allianz Stadium. Mbappe is now the youngest player to reach the milestone of 40 goals, breaking the record set by Lionel Messi when he was 24.
Coincidentally, Messi supplied the assist that helped Mbappe accomplish the feat at just 23 years and 317 days to overtake Messi, who took 24 years and 130 days to reach the 40-goal mark in the most prestigious club football competition in Europe.
Mbappe’s feat puts him ahead of legends of the game in the 40-goal bracket like Raul Gonzalez (25 years 258 days), Karim Benzema (26 years 307 days) and Cristiano Ronaldo (27 years 241 days).
Mbappe and Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, are tied in this season’s UCL scoring charts with 7 goals each. With the quickest hat-trick in tournament history against Rangers, Salah closes the group stage having scored in five successive Champions League games. Mbappe also scored five goals in five games, and his first goal for PSG against Juventus on matchday six pulled him back equal with Salah.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
