Mbappe: I prefer to be benched for Messi, Ronaldo
Kylian Mbappé’s remarkable goalscoring record in the Champions League is far more superior to Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi’s when they were 21-years-old.
In fact, at the same age, Ronaldo hadn’t even scored in the Champions League while Messi had only bagged twice for Barca.
In February of last year, the PSG forward equalled Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima’s record in Europe’s elite competition when he netted against Manchester United, and his reputation continues to grow, week after week.
Many have since compared him to some of the world’s best but when push comes to shove, who would he choose between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo?
In a great quote from France Football, the 20-year-old says he would bench himself so both players could be in his team.
“If I had a choice between Messi and Ronaldo to play with me, I would sit on the bench and play both of them to be sure we would win.” he said. Now this is what you call elite mentality.
Six years after a 13-year-old Mbappe was pictured in his bedroom surrounded by a Cristiano Ronaldo shrine, the forward is realising his dream of becoming one of, if not the, most exciting prospect in world football.
Mbappe’s father told France Football back in 2016 that his son used to “spend hours watching videos of Ronaldo on the internet” and now the Paris Saint-Germain forward is tearing teams apart on the biggest stage of them all.
In an interview with Spanish publication MARCA last year, Mbappe actually spoke about how influential Ronaldo was on his career as a youngster but it soon ‘ended’.
“He is a hero from my childhood and it was amazing to meet him when I visited Valdebebas,” he said.
“But I am a competitor and a person who is very competitive and all I want to do is win, win, win. So it doesn’t really matter who is in front of us, we want to win.
“I admired him when I was younger, but that ended. Now I go to the Bernabeu to play and to win.
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“From someone who has won five Ballons d’Or you can learn a lot. He’s a great player, but I have those here too. Neymar is here and I think he is very similar and is at practically the same level as Cristiano Ronaldo. I learn from [Edinson] Cavani as a goalscorer too.”