Could Kylian Mbappe one day break Cristiano Ronaldo’s insane international record?

Cristiano Ronaldo’s standing as international football’s all-time leading goalscorer sets a daunting benchmark – but Kylian Mbappe may well believe he has what it takes to eventually eclipse the record held by his idol.

Having followed in Ronaldo’s footsteps to become Real Madrid’s latest Galactico goal machine, he’s also chasing down one of the Portugal icon’s greatest records.

Mbappe scored his 56th goal for France in their friendly victory over Brazil and is on the cusp of surpassing Olivier Giroud to become Les Bleus’ all-time leading goalscorer. Not bad for a 27-year-old who likely has many years to come at the top of his game.

The Frenchman’s numbers are particularly impressive when you compare them to Ronaldo’s at the same age and stage of his career. Mbappe has scored 21 more goals than Ronaldo had after the same number of appearances, roughly the same age, nine years after making their international debuts.

That’s quite the head start. An increased scoring rate of almost 50% is certainly eye-catching. But does that necessarily mean that Mbappe is on track to break Ronaldo’s record one day?

First of all, let’s establish some parameters.

Ronaldo could hang up his boots tomorrow and his current tally of 143 goals for Portugal would be difficult to surpass.

Iran legend Ali Daei and Ronaldo’s old foe Lionel Messi are the only other players in the history of international football to notch over a hundred goals, with 108 and 115 respectively.

To put Ronaldo’s goalscoring numbers into perspective, that’s over 50 more than any other European footballer. Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski are joint second on 89 goals – with that gap almost matching Mbappe’s entire career tally to date.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner is gearing up for his sixth World Cup and doesn’t appear to have any imminent plans to retire, but he has recognised that he’s on the final stretch as he chases down his stated goal of a thousand goals for club and country.

“Definitely, yes,” Ronaldo asked when the 2026 World Cup will be his last major tournament with Portugal.

“I will be 41 years old and I think [this] will be the moment in the big competition.

“Let’s be honest, when I mean soon, it’s probably one or two years I’ll still be at the game.”

Let’s be generous and assume that Ronaldo will add another 10 goals to his tally before finally retiring from international football.

That sets a benchmark of 153 goals in total if Mbappe is to one day surpass Ronaldo as international football’s all-time top goalscorer. In other words, he’ll need almost 100 more goals on top of his current tally if he’s to do it.

And therein lies the scale of the task at hand. Mbappe has scored 56 goals in 95 appearances to date for France. It’s taken him nine years.

In other words, if he maintains his (very impressive) scoring rate of his career to date, he’d need to make roughly another 172 appearances, which would span around 16 or 17 years in international football, give or take. That would take Mbappe up to the age of 43.

Taking Mbappe’s career average to date is arguably a bit misleading, as it includes his younger years when he was a bit more raw and not quite as prolific. He’s setting new career best tallies season upon season at Madrid, while he’s scored in each of his last seven appearances for France.

If there’s any realistic chance of Mbappe ever catching Ronaldo, he’ll likely need to maintain that goal-a-game average for years, as Ronaldo did after hitting his goalscoring peak in his thirties.

Ultimately, the question is one of longevity. Unless Mbappe starts bagging hat-tricks in every single appearance, he’ll need to remain starting regularly well into his thirties – well beyond 35 – if he’s to ever eclipse Ronaldo.

That’s a big ask. In Ronaldo’s latter years, he reinvented himself as a Gerd Muller-esque No.9 that favoured goalscoring above all else. That maximum efficiency certainly worked for him.

But you look at Mbappe’s physical profile and it’s difficult to imagine him becoming that sort of player. His pace and dynamism have been a major facet of his game and they’re likely to fade with time, while similar players – Ronaldo Nazario, Michael Owen – saw their careers curtailed by injury and weren’t anywhere near as prolific in their veteran years.

If we were to hedge our bets, we’d say it’s very unlikely that Mbappe will break Ronaldo’s record.

But if he can stay injury-free and sustain his prime for a long time, as Ronaldo did, then it certainly isn’t impossible.

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