PSG star moves into top ten 

Will Mbappé or Haaland eclipse Cristiano Ronaldo's Champions League record?

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Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland are widely regarded as two of the best players on the planet after taking over the mantle from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Mbappé and Haaland have soared to become the most valuable players in the world at €180 million, alongside Jude Bellingham, with Messi and Ronaldo reaching the epilogue of their careers. Mbappé will feature in the Champions League semi-finals after PSG beat Barcelona but Manchester City were knocked out by Real Madrid.

The 100 most valuable players in the world

100 Cody Gakpo | Liverpool | €50m

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99 Reece James | Chelsea | €50m

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98 Jeremie Frimpong | Bayer Leverkusen | €50m

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97 Jonathan David | Lille | €50m

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96 Amadou Onana | Everton | €50m

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95 Anthony Gordon | Newcastle | €50m

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94 Gonçalo Ramos | Paris Saint-Germain | €50m

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93 Santiago Gimenez | Feyenoord | €50m

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92 Michael Olise | Crystal Palace | €50m

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91 Nico Williams | Athletic | €50m

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90 Roméo Lavia | Chelsea | €50m

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89 Alejandro Balde | Barcelona | €50m

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88 Mathys Tel | Bayern Munich | €50m

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87 Marcus Thuram | Inter Milan | €55m

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86 Ben White | Arsenal | €55m

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85 Theo Hernández | AC Milan | €55m

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84 Matheus Nunes | Manchester City | €55m

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83 Kai Havertz | Arsenal | €55m

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82 Loïs Openda | RB Leipzig | €55m

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81 Dejan Kulusevski | Tottenham | €55m

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80 Levi Colwill | Chelsea | €55m

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79 Kevin de Bruyne | Manchester City | €60m

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78 Marquinhos | Paris Saint-Germain | €60m

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77 João Palhinha | Fulham | €60m

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76 Ollie Watkins | Aston Villa | €60m

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75 Min-jae Kim | Bayern Munich | €60m

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74 Ousmane Dembélé | Barcelona | €60m

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73 Gabriel Magalhães | Arsenal | €60m

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72 Dayot Upamecano | Bayern Munich | €60m

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71 Jules Koundé | Barcelona | €60m

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70 Douglas Luiz | Aston Villa | €60m

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69 Alessandro Bastoni | Inter Mian | €60m

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68 Moussa Diaby | Aston Villa | €60m

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67 Dusan Vlahovic | Juventus | €60m

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66 Takefusa Kubo | Real Sociedad | €60m

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65 Manuel Ugarte | Paris Saint-Germain | €60m

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64 Nuno Mendes | Paris Saint-Germain | €60m

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63 Warren Zaïre-Emery | Paris Saint-Germain | €60m

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62 Lamine Yamal | Barcelona | €60m

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61 Mohamed Salah | Liverpool | €65m

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60 Kingsley Coman | Bayern Munich | €65m

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59 Lucas Paquetá | West Ham | €65m

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58 Cristian Romero | Tottenham | €65m

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57 Achraf Hakimi | Paris Saint-Germain | €65m

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56 Alexis Mac Allister | Liverpool | €65m

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55 Matthijs de Ligt | Bayern Munich | €65m

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54 Darwin Núñez | Liverpool | €65m

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53 Jérémy Doku | Manchester City | €65m

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52 Rasmus Højlund | Manchester United | €65m

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51 Evan Ferguson | Brighton | €65m

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50 Bruno Fernandes | Manchester United | €70m

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49 Jack Grealish | Manchester City | €70m

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48 James Maddison | Tottenham | €70m

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47 Marcus Rashford | Manchester United | €70m

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46 Gabriel Jesus | Arsenal | €70m

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45 Trent Alexander-Arnold | Liverpool | €70m

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44 Éder Militão | Real Madrid | €70m

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43 Randal Kolo Muani | Paris Saint-Germain | €70m

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42 Alexander Isak | Newcastle | €70m

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41 Ronald Araujo | Barcelona | €70m

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40 Alphonso Davies | Bayern Munich | €70m

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39 Xavi Simons | Rb Leipzig | €70m

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38 Joshua Kimmich | Bayern Munich | €75m

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37 Nicolò Barella | Inter Milan | €75m

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36 Christopher Nkunku | Chelsea | €75m

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35 Luis Díaz | Liverpool | €75m

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34 Dominik Szoboszlai | Liverpool | €75m

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33 William Saliba | Arsenal | €75m

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32 Bernardo Silva | Manchester City | €80m

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31 Leroy Sané | Bayern Munich | €80m

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30 Rúben Dias | Manchester City | €80m

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29 Frenkie de Jong | Barcelona | €80m

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28 Khvicha Kvaratskhelia | Napoli | €80m

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27 Enzo Fernández | Chelsea | €80m

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26 Josko Gvardiol | Manchester City | €80m

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25 Bruno Guimarães | Newcastle | €85m

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24 Gabriel Martinelli | Arsenal | €85m

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23 Martin Ødegaard | Arsenal | €90m

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22 Rafael Leão | AC Milan | €90m

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21 Aurélien Tchouaméni | Real Madrid | €90m

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20 Julián Álvarez | Manchester City | €90m

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19 Moisés Caicedo | Chelsea | €90m

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18 Eduardo Camavinga | Real Madrid | €90m

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17 Pedri | Barcelona | €90m

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16 Gavi | Barcelona | €90m

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15 Federico Valverde | Real Madrid | €100m

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14 Rodrygo | Real Madrid | €100m

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13 Florian Wirtz | Bayer Leverkusen | €100m

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12 Harry Kane | Bayern Munich | €110m

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11 Rodri | Manchester City | €110m

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10 Lautaro Martinez | Inter Milan | €110m

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9 Victor Osimhen | Napoli | €110m

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8 Declan Rice | Arsenal | €110m

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7 Phil Foden | Manchester City | €110m

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6 Jamal Musiala | Bayern Munich | €110m

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5 Bukayo Saka | Arsenal | €120m

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4 Vinicius Jr | Real Madrid | €150m

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3 Kylian Mbappé | Paris Saint-Germain | €180m

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2 Erling Haaland | Manchester City | €180m

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1 Jude Bellingham | Real Madrid | €180m

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Messi and Ronaldo collected 13 Ballon D’Ors during their illustrious careers as they battled for individual and collective honours for almost two decades. Messi and Ronaldo haven’t retired yet as they pursue lucrative opportunities at Inter Miami and Al-Nassr but they are no longer competing in the pinnacle tournament in club football – the Champions League. Messi and Ronaldo are comfortably the two top goalscorers in the competition’s history but could Mbappé or Haaland eclipse their records? 

Top five Champions League all-time top goalscorers (excluding qualifiers)

Ronaldo is the top goalscorer in Champions League history with 140 goals. The Portugal international scored 105 goals in the competition with Real Madrid, 21 with Manchester United and 14 with Juventus. Ronaldo impressively finished top scorer in the Champions League in seven campaigns and he recorded 0.79 goals per 90 in the competition across his career. Messi sits in second place with 129 goals but he averaged more goals per 90 (0.86) than Ronaldo. Messi scored 120 of his Champions League goals with Barcelona and he scored in 18 consecutive campaigns from the 2005/06 season.

While Ronaldo and Messi are highly unlikely to add to their goal tallies, Robert Lewandowski could still add to his 92 goals. Barcelona should qualify for next year’s competition and the Polish striker will have ambitions of becoming a centurion. Lewandowski is also Bayern Munich’s record European goalscorer with 69 goals. Karim Benzema could also feasibly add to his 90 goals in the competition with the 36-year-old reportedly targeting a return to Europe after becoming unhappy in Saudi Arabia. Benzema scored 15 goals in the competition as Real Madrid were crowned champions after beating Liverpool in the final in 2022. Raúl is the third former Real Madrid player in the top five with the Spanish legend netting 71 goals in the competition and he was the first ever player to reach 50 goals. 

Will Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland become the Champions League all-time top scorer?

Mbappé (48) has scored more goals than Haaland (41) in the Champions League but the Manchester City striker’s scoring rate is far superior. The Norwegian averages an incredible 1.19 goals per 90 minutes in the competition, compared to Mbappé (0.76). The PSG striker was the quickest player to reach 40 goals in the competition (59 games) before Haaland smashed his record by reaching the milestone in just 35 games.

Haaland has the best goals per 90 record in the history of the tournament and the 24-year-old will smash Ronaldo’s record if he continues to play in the Champions League for the next decade. Still just 25, Mbappé could also feasibly play in the competition for the next ten years and he could close in on Messi and Ronaldo’s totals but Haaland’s scoring rate means he’s the favourite to become the Champions League all-time top goalscorer during his career. Mbappé moved into the top ten scorers in the competition’s history with his double against PSG in the quarter-final but Haaland remains on track to beat Ronaldo’s record. 


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