The countdown to the first FIFA Club World Cup continues with a look at the Kylian Mbappe rewriting the Real Madrid record books.
Kylian Mbappe has scored 28 goals in 32 appearances for Real Madrid C. F. in La Liga. It broke the record for league goals in a player’s first season at the Bernabeu, which Alfredo Di Stefano had set at 27 in 1953/54. Mbappe reached the total after becoming the first Real player to hit a hat-trick in El Clásico in La Liga since Ivan Zamorano in 1995. It also made him the first man in history to net two trebles as a visiting player in Barcelona, having registered one for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021. Overall, Mbappe has scored 40 goals in 54 games for Los Blancos – a figure bettered only by one player in his first campaign at a Spanish top-tier team. Ronaldo struck 47 times for Barcelona in 1996/97.
Real will take on Al Hilal in Miami, CF Pachuca in Charlotte and FC Salzburg in Philadelphia at the FIFA Club World Cup. Mbappe could meet PSG, in what would be one of the biggest showdowns in football history, in the semi-finals or final.
