How long it will take Kylian Mbappe to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League goal record

Kylian Mbappe is currently the eighth highest-scoring player in Champions League history, but how long will it take him to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s record? We’ve crunched the numbers.

CR7 dominated the European stage for around two decades and scored a record 140 goals in 183 appearances.

Along with holding the record for the most goals, Ronaldo also has the most assists in the competition’s history with 42.

While Mbappe is still waiting to win his first UCL title, he boasts a superb record in Europe with 55 goals in 83 appearances.

It’s no secret that the Frenchman idolised Ronaldo when growing up and the Portuguese superstar recently gave some words of advice to the 26-year-old.

“I love [Mbappe], not just because of his story as a kid, how he loved Cristiano, I was his idol,” Ronaldo told El Chiringuito. “I think he’s a top player.

“It’s complicated, because he doesn’t know how to play as a forward in my opinion – or rather, it’s not that he doesn’t know, but it isn’t his position.

“If I was at Madrid, I’d show him how to play as a number nine.

“I wasn’t a forward. I got used to it, but I was a winger. People forget that. I was a forward, but not a typical forward. I think [Mbappe] shouldn’t be a typical forward, he should do things his way.”

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Following a fairly slow start to life at Madrid, Mbappe has found some form in recent months with 14 goals in his last 11 appearances for the club.

The Frenchman also played a starring role during Real Madrid’s UCL triumph against Manchester City, scoring four goals including a hat-trick at the Bernabeu.

We’ve crunched the numbers and have worked out how long it will realistically take Mbappe to break Ronaldo’s UCL goalscoring record.

– As of writing, Mbappe is 85 goals away from matching Ronaldo’s Champions League tally and 86 goals away from breaking it.

– In the UCL, the Frenchman averages 0.66 goals per game which is slightly inferior to Ronaldo’s record of 0.77 goals per game.

– Therefore, if Mbappe were to maintain his current strike rate in Europe, it would take him 129 more matches to break Ronaldo’s scoring record.

– That means if Mbappe were to play an average of 12 UCL games per season, it would take him around 12 more seasons to break the current scoring record. It would also mean that Mbappe would have to play at the top level until he’s at least 38 years old.

– Although, if Mbappe played the maximum of 17 UCL matches per season, it would take him just over eight seasons to surpass Ronaldo’s tally of 140 goals. However, this would require Real Madrid to make the final in every season along with playing in the play-off round.

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– Of course, if the Frenchman could improve his output in Europe, it would therefore take him less time to catch up to Ronaldo.

– If Mbappe can reach Ronaldo’s level of 0.77 goals per game from this point of his career onwards, it would take him 115 more matches to break CR7’s scoring record.

– Given the Real Madrid star is still 86 goals shy of breaking Ronaldo’s record, we reckon CR7’s UCL tally is pretty safe for now.