MY ACCOUNT
Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappe is capable of continuing his goalscoring form long into his career similarly to Cristiano Ronaldo, regardless of where he is plying his trade from next season.
That is according to Louis Saha, who also expects Lionel Messi to blow Ligue 1 opponents away once he regains full fitness in the new year.
Mbappe is into the final six months of his existing contract at the Parc des Princes and is free to sign a pre-contract agreement with clubs outside of Ligue 1 from January.
Real Madrid had two bids turned down for the France international in the previous transfer window and remain the strong favourites to land the superstar in 2022.
Mbappe has scored 15 goals and assisted 12 more in 24 outings in all competitions this term in a star-studded attack that also contains Messi and the currently injured Neymar.
Only Mohamed Salah (31) and Robert Lewandowski (33) have been directly involved in more goals than Mbappe this campaign among players from Europe’s top five leagues.
And while glad to see Mbappe remain in Ligue 1 for the 2021-22 campaign, Saha understands that his compatriot has a big decision to make on his future in the coming weeks.
“The main thing for me was for him to stay at PSG this year,” Saha said. “Whatever he does next year, for me, that was logical for football in general throughout the world.
“We wanted to see this trio of Mbappe, Messi and Neymar. It’s incredible to see and today he has his destiny in his hands. He’s a player who is exploding and he’s reaching more milestones.”
Mbappe recently became the youngest player in Ligue 1 history to score 100 goals for a single team with his second of the game for PSG against former club Monaco.
Since making his debut for PSG in September 2017, the 23-year-old has averaged a goal every 104.63 minutes in all competitions.
That ranks Mbappe behind only four others among Europe’s elite attackers over that period and marginally ahead of Ronaldo, who averages a goal every 105.8 minutes at club level.
With Ronaldo still scoring regularly as he approaches his 37th birthday, Saha has challenged Mbappe to hit similar heights.
“If he can match Ronaldo’s 40 goals a year average from the age of 20, that’s something we want to keep seeing from Kylian,” Saha said.
“That is not to put pressure on him. Kylian quite simply has the potential to do that.”
Mbappe’s 27 direct goal involvements this season is substantially more than PSG’s next biggest attacking threat, with Messi second on the list with six goals and four assists.
The record seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has scored just once in 10 Ligue 1 appearances from an expected goals (xG) return of 4.7.
To put that in some context, Mbappe’s nine goals in the competition this term have come from an xG of 10.9.
But while Messi’s PSG career has yet to truly take off, Saha can see that changing once the Barcelona legend gets some regular starts under his belt.
“You can already see players who are not necessarily in great shape like Messi – imagine when he starts to find his form again!” Saha said. “I don’t know how teams will cope.
“PSG are an extraordinary team. I prayed for Mbappe to stay at PSG to see these three exceptional players. Neymar’s injury has delayed that, but they have an incredible team.
“Don’t be surprised to see them win the league by 20 or 25 points come the end of the season.”
