This decade will see Messi and Cristiano go into their 40s, and even though these men
have proven to be superhuman, we expect that at some point in this current decade, they
will hang their boots.
Okay, let’s be honest, these men have defied logic on numerous occasions, so you really
never can tell.
Let’s just say they will be retiring this decade or the next.
Well, whenever it will be, it is already sure to be an extremely sad occasion for the entire
world of football.
But there’s a little rainbow for that cloudy day: it appears that we have already seen
the heirs to their throne in Mbappe and Haaland.
But the question now is: judging by current stats, will Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland
ever surpass the legacy of Messi and Ronaldo?
Hm.
That might seem like an impossible thing to achieve, but then, there are a lot of factors
to consider.
And of course, the number 1 is goals.
These 4 men are proven goal scorers, so it is a fair criterion to judge with.
As it stands, Kylian Mbappe has scored 181 goals in 263 appearances.
Erling Haaland has scored 129 goals in 173 appearances.
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 688 in 918 appearances.
And Lionel Messi has scored 678 in 796 appearances.
So, obviously, there is a huge disparity between the number of games the two sets of players
have played, so we’ll compare their goal to game ratios so that everyone is on a level
playing field.
Here are their goal to game ratios:
Mbappe – 0.69 Haaland – 0.75
Cristiano – 0.75 Messi – 0.85
Now, remember this is not a comparison to determine who the best player is, we already
know that these 4 players are amazing generational talents.
What we want to find out is; at this rate that the younger ballers are going, will they
be able to surpass the 2 arguably greatest players ever?
Going by those ratios, can we say that Haaland and Mbappe are on the right track to overtake
Messi and Ronaldo?
Maybe if they put in more work and get better over the years.
But perhaps you’d say Mbappe has some catching up to do if he’s going to make the rivalry
between him and Haaland look anything like what has been going on between Messi and Ronaldo
for almost 2 decades.
But goals don’t tell the whole story, do they?
Let’s now add their assists to their goals and see what we have.
Mbappe has 276 goals + assists.
Haaland has 163 goals + assists.
Cristiano has 920 goals + assists.
Messi has 987 goals + assists.
So, for the goal + assist to game ratio, here’s what we have:
Mbappe – 1.05 Haaland – 0.94
Cristiano – 1.00 Messi – 1.24
Now, as you can see, Mbappe’s ratio greatly improved when we put in the assists, and now
it is looking like a healthy rivalry, isn’t it?
But it still has to be said that the younger guys have to put in more work as they grow
older to be able to reach or surpass what the legends have done so far.
But another important question to be asked here is this: are they doing just fine for
their ages?
You know, no matter how good you are, you need experience to be able to perform at certain
levels.
So, here’s what we’re going to do.
We’re going to compare all these players' achievements when they were 21.
We picked that age because Haaland is the youngest of the 4 and he is currently 21,
which means any other age above 21 and we won’t have stats for the Norwegian.
Anyway, here are the numbers of goals Messi, Ronaldo, Haaland, and Mbappe had scored as
at their 21st birthdays:
Mbappe – 118 goals Haaland – 113 goals
Cristiano – 36 goals Messi – 51 goals
Woah!
Now this totally changes the perspective of things!
You mean that at 21, Messi and Ronaldo had not done up to half of what these lads had
done at the same age?
Wow.
Just wow!
So, judging by this, the notion that Haaland and Mbappe will surpass Messi and Ronaldo’s
legacy looks very realistic, doesn’t it?
I mean, they already have a mind-blowing head start.
The only way from here is up, don’t you think?
Up, up, and away.
But we can’t be too quick to conclude, you know.
The fact that Mbappe and Haaland are having a more phenomenal start to their careers does
not automatically mean that they will go on to surpass Messi and Ronaldo.
Raul, Aguero, Lukaku, and Neymar, are some other players who had a lot more goals than
Cristiano and Messi at age 21.
But of the players we just mentioned, is there anyone that you can say came or comes close
to the legacy that these 2 icons have?
Exactly!
Okay, so what about team trophies and individual awards?
For the younger stars to be able to surpass the legacy of the legends, they also have
to win stuff with their teams and then individually, too.
To start with, at their 21st birthdays, Messi, Haaland, and Mbappe, had all won the Golden
Boy awards.
At his 21st birthday, Mbappe had won:
3 Ligue 1 titles, 4 domestic cups
And 1 World Cup.
Individually, he had won:
1 Ligue 1 Player of the Year 1 Ligue 1 Golden Boot
World Cup Best Young Player And the Kopa Trophy.
At his 21st birthday, Haaland had won:
2 Austrian league titles 1 Austrian domestic cup
And 1 German domestic cup
Individually, he had won:
1 Austrian bundesliga player of the season 1 German bundesliga player of the season
1 UCL forward of the season And 1 UCL Golden Boot
At his 21st birthday, Cristiano had won:
1 Portuguese domestic cup And 1 FA Cup
At his 21st birthday, Messi had won:
2 La Liga titles 1 Spanish super cup
And 1 UEFA Champions League
From this breakdown, we can see that, at their 21st birthdays, Mbappe and Haaland were more
successful than Ronaldo and Messi.
The latter pair, who are now the players with the most individual awards ever, did not have
any major individual award to their name at their 21st birthdays, while the younger pair
already had 4 each.
So, again, Haaland and Mbappe have an amazing head start.
If they continue at this pace, they are on course to upend Messi and Cristiano’s football
legacy.
But it is important to remind us of the unpredictability of the game of football.
Yes, data and stats help us make calculated predictions, but there are some factors that
these data and statistics cannot capture.
For example, injuries.
Haaland and Mbappe may be on their way to surpass the current kings, but a damaging
injury could just turn everything upside down in a flash.
And there is no better example for this than Ronaldo de Lima.
Till today, many still say that the Brazilian Ronaldo would have been greater than Messi
and Cristiano if he did not get that damaging knee injury.
But we just will never know.
That’s the harsh reality of the sport.
So, even though we don’t wish injuries on any of these players, that’s something we
still have to consider.
Another thing is wrong footballing decisions and indiscipline.
Players have failed to live up to their potential because of a wrong decision, perhaps a move
to a club that just wasn’t right for them.
There are numerous examples of this.
People argue that Michael Owen would have been greater if he didn’t make that move
to Real Madrid from Liverpool in 2004.
And of course, there’s still the ongoing debate that Neymar’s move away from Barcelona
has stopped him from ever reaching his full potential.
So, with speculation that Mbappe and Haaland will be playing for new clubs by next season,
it is important that the right decisions are made, if not, we could be singing a totally
different tune.
And of course, the boys will definitely have to keep their heads down; be disciplined and
responsible, because we have seen huge talents who started out phenomenally, fail to live
up to expectation because of indiscipline and irresponsibility.
And there is surely no better example of this than Balotelli.
And we may just be seeing that happen to Greenwood, too.
Finally, iron sharpens iron, you know.
So, if Haaland and Mbappe are going to surpass Leo and Cristiano, they are going to have
to establish their rivalry early enough just as the legends did.
As at 2007, when Messi was 20 and Ronaldo was 22, we saw them both climb the FIFA and
Ballon d’Or stages for the first time, as they finished runners up to Kaka.
And since then, they have only missed the top 3 on like 3 occasions combined.
The 2 met in the Champions League final in 2009, after which Ronaldo joined Real Madrid,
Barcelona’s greatest rivals, and from then, they went on an amazing rivalry run for 9
years.
Honestly, you just get the feeling that Haaland and Mbappe have to recreate that if they’re
going to stand a chance of surpassing Messi and Ronaldo’s legacy.
And it is not so far-fetched as Mbappe and Haaland are rumored to be close to moves to
Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively by next summer.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi made each other better.
In fact, they still do.
And we strongly believe that if it was only one of them who existed in their generation,
they would not have been as great as they currently are.
So, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe need to borrow a leaf out of the greatest players’
books and quickly establish a healthy rivalry that will make each of them strive to be better
each day.
Of course, not forgetting the mutual respect.
We don’t want to see anything that gets too ugly.
While we want an intense rivalry, we also want to see respect.
Summarily, the biggest question that will be posed to Haaland and Mbappe is: will you
be able to perform at the top most level for like 15 more years from now?
Yes, you’re on the right track, but if you want to be greater than Messi and Ronaldo,
you will have to keep playing at this level for a very long time.
And if history is anything to go by, that will not be easy at all.
The majority of footballers were not and are not able to still perform at the highest level
in their 30s.
But we’ve been seeing the GOATs do it for years now.
Messi, at 34, is the oldest player to have ever won the Ballon d’Or since it was first
awarded in 1956.
That is to show you how so not normal what these men have done is.
Anyway, we will just have to see how things unfold over the years.
But by the look of things, do you think that Mbappe and Haaland have what it takes to surpass
what Messi and Ronaldo have done in football?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Here’s another interesting question we would like to throw at you: in the Haaland and Mbappe
rivalry, who is Messi and who is Ronaldo?
Give us your answer with explanation in the comments.
We will be looking out for them.
If you enjoyed this video, slap a like on it.
Also, subscribe to the channel and turn on the bell notification so you don’t miss
more interesting videos like this.
Catch you in the next one.
Bye!