Comparing Kylian Mbappe’s debut season at Real Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo’s
Kylian Mbappe has now played his first full season at Real Madrid, but how do his stats compare with Cristiano Ronaldo‘s first season?
After signing the Frenchman on a free transfer last summer, plenty of fans and pundits tipped Real Madrid to bulldoze the competition in 2024-25, but that hasn’t quite happened.
While Mbappe got his hands on the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Intercontinental Cup, Real Madrid fell short in the other major competitions this year.
In many ways, it was similar to Ronaldo’s debut season in Spain, where he also missed out on La Liga, the Champions League and Copa del Rey.
Despite coming up short both domestically and in Europe, Mbappe still enjoyed an excellent season from an individual standpoint.
Across all competitions, he scored 43 goals and subsequently won the European Golden Shoe for the first time in his career, beating the likes of Mohamed Salah and Viktor Gyokeres.
While those scoring numbers are impressive, they likely won’t be enough for Mbappe to win the Ballon d’Or this year as he currently trails the likes of Salah, Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele in the race.
Ronaldo also missed out on the Ballon d’Or during his first season at Madrid as he finished sixth that year, behind the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi.
During CR7’s debut season in Madrid, he scored 33 goals across all competitions and would’ve scored more, had he not missed several weeks of the season due to injury.
Factoring in the games that Ronaldo missed during 2009-10, he actually scored on a more regular basis than Mbappe. CR7 scored every 88.5 minutes, whereas Mbappe has hit the back of the net every 107 minutes this season.
“I really enjoyed the season that I’ve done, but what’s missing is winning a title,” Ronaldo said following his first season in Spain.
“I’m very happy here in Madrid and my teammates have helped me a lot, but the team has not won anything. We have to keep fighting and I am confident we will win many titles.”
Those words soon came true as the Portuguese forward went on to win 15 trophies during his nine-year stint at the club.
We’ve taken a closer look at both Ronaldo and Mbappe and have compared their debut seasons at Real Madrid with one another.
Kylian Mbappe’s debut season stats
Games: 56 ⭐
Goals: 43 ⭐
Assists: 5
Goal contributions: 48 ⭐
Penalties: 7 ⭐
Free kicks: 1
Minutes per goal: 107.2
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 128.1
Minutes per goal or assist: 96.0
Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut season stats
Games: 35
Goals: 33
Assists: 8 ⭐
Goal contributions: 41
Penalties: 4
Free kicks: 6 ⭐
Minutes per goal: 88.5 ⭐
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 100.7 ⭐
Minutes per goal or assist: 71.2 ⭐
READ NEXT: The eight highest-paid footballers in the world according to Forbes: Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe…
TRY A QUIZ: The Ultimate Cristiano Ronaldo Quiz: 30 tricky questions on the Real Madrid & Man Utd icon