Watch: The Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe era is now upon us

As the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo era is slowly coming to its conclusion, the new debate is between Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.

In our latest YouTube video, we checked out both players and have looked into their careers so far.

On the opening night of the Champions League this season, we saw both players scoring a brace.

Kylian Mbappe put two goals past Juventus in the first half and Erling Haaland responded with two of his own against Sevilla.

Erling Haaland recently arrived at Manchester City and he has already taken the Premier League by storm.

It has only taken him six matches to reach the 10-goal mark for the season and there is still plenty to come from him.

While Erling Haaland decided to move to Manchester this summer, Kylian Mbappe decided to sign a new bumper contract with PSG.

The Frenchman has scored seven league goals in his opening five Ligue 1 matches this season.

Throughout his club career, Mbappe has scored 212 goals and got 106 assists in 288 matches.

That means he averages 1.1 goal contributions every game, which is a staggering return.

Mbappe’s highest scoring season came in 2020-21 when he scored 42 goals across all competitions.

Erling Haaland also has a freakishly good goalscoring record as he has scored 147 goals and assisted 37 goals in 191 club appearances.

That gives Haaland an average of 0.96 goal contributions per game.

Mbappe currently has the edge when it comes to goals and assists, but from a pure goalscoring point of view, it is Haaland who is the more clinical finisher.

The Manchester City striker averages 0.77 goals per game, whereas Mbappe averages 0.74 goals per game.

There’s really not much in it and that’s why this debate is set up to be hotly contested for the next decade to come.

French legend Thierry Henry has said that his preference is with Mbappe because of his versatility as he claimed, “Mbappe can create and finish, Haaland doesn’t create, he finishes.

“Mbappe can play on the right and on the left, he can play in the middle, Haaland can only play in the middle.

“For now, Mbappe is still my vote.”

There’s every chance that the Champions League Golden Boot race will be between the pair this season, although Robert Lewandowski will still have something to say about that.

READ NEXT: Comparing Erling Haaland & Kylian Mbappe’s career records so far