Cristiano Ronaldo is back where it all began - but how good was he back then? FourFourTwo runs the numbers to find out who was better between him and Mbappe at the same age
(Image credit: Getty)
FourFourTwo can still remember watching Match of the Day on the evening that Cristiano Ronaldo made his Manchester United debut against Bolton in August 2003. David Beckham, freshly dumped to Real Madrid having received a swift football boot to the forehead from Alex Ferguson a couple of months earlier, was gone and this gawky, somewhat spotty 18-year-old announced himself as the Red Devils' upgraded No.7 with a 29-minute cameo of feints, tricks and stepovers. Lots of stepovers.
Five pints to the wind after an impromptu trip to the pub, we watched open-mouthed from the sofa of our student digs desperately wondering whether the blur in front of us had anything to do with an evening's intoxication. The legend of CR7, at least in our eyes, was born.
Watching an 18-year-old Kylian Mbappe for the first time, a couple of miles across the same city, just under 13 and a half years later elicited a similar epiphany, minus the amber nectar. The Frenchman's goal and jet-heeled, show-stealing brilliance despite Monaco's 5-3 defat to Manchester City in the last 16 of the Champions League in February 2017 stirred the same awe and certainty that this was a generational talent.
With Ronaldo back home and Mbappe looking to take up CR7's mantle in Madrid... FFT pondered who had performed best at the same age, Ronaldo or Mbappe? The latter turned 22 years, six months and four days old on the day of the game, so how does the Paris Saint-Germain forward's electrifying start compare to CR7 by the same point (August 9, 2007) in all competitions for club and country? We dived down a Transfermarkt rabbit hole to find out.
Mbappe was still 16 when making his senior debut for Monaco in mid-December 2015, so had about a nine-month start on Ronaldo, whose professional bow for Sporting came when he was 17 in September 2002. Despite the early start, the Frenchman has managed only 11 more senior appearances than Ronaldo played at the same age. Interestingly, these have all come in club football – before the game this evening, the pair were tied on 46 international caps apiece.
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Interestingly, however, there is a marked difference in the minutes the pair have amassed from those appearances. Mbappe has 1,589 more minutes on his clock than Ronaldo aged 22 and a half, indicating he has become more vital earlier into his career.
Apropos of nothing, Ronaldo didn't complete a full game for Portugal until his 11th cap, playing all 120 minutes of Portugal's shootout victory over England at Euro 2004. That's the game in which keeper Ricardo ditched his gloves to deny Darius Vassell. Put that in your fact pipe.
Goals and assists
Unlike the arch poacher into which he has evolved, Ronaldo 1.0 was a fleet-of-foot winger – some may say one-trick pony, especially until his breakthrough 2006/07 season – wedded to the sideline and yet to develop the eye for goal which has taken him to the cusp of international goalscoring immortality.
By Mbappe's age, CR7 had found the net 72 times, compared with the Frenchman who has bagged over a century more by dint of being a pure centre-forward. And a lethal one at that – he's scored more than 20 times in each of his last five seasons, a feat Ronaldo managed only once in the same period.
Again, however, they had both struck 17 times in internationals by this point in their careers, meaning they have identical records for appearances and goals for their respective countries at the same age.
The pair's assist numbers are similar, though again Mbappe edges the comparison. The Frenchman has set up a team-mate on 23 more occasions than Ronaldo's 69. CR7 in not passing shock.
This is becoming a massacre. Ronaldo snuck in a fifth career gong four days before turning Mbappe's current age with the 2007 Community Shield, to add to the 2002 Portuguese Super Cup, 2003/04 FA Cup, 2005/06 League Cup and 2006/07 Premier League. CR7's first Champions League of five would follow with nine months later, but his early United career was something of a banter era featuring David Bellion and Eric Djemba-Djemba. Nuff said.
Magpie Mbappe, meanwhile, has 12 shiny objects in his trophy cabinet, including four Ligue 1 titles, two French Cups and the 2018 World Cup. True, PSG are expected to yawn to domestic honours, but it was Mbappe's brilliance which secured the 2016/17 Championnat with Monaco.
It also took Ronaldo until he was 31 to win an international tournament, at Euro 2016. Wee Kylian won the World Cup three years ago.
Interestingly, neither has won a Ballon d'Or at this stage of their careers. The first of Ronaldo's five would come at the end of 2008, having won that Champions League crown with United. Should France win Euro 2020, the smart money would be on Mbappe to beat Ronaldo to that, too.
Transfer fees
This isn't the time or place for a transfer fee rant, but it's not hard to guess who would come out on top for this one, thanks to market inflation. Mbappe remains the second most expensive player in history – after club-mate Neymar – with PSG paying Monaco £163m for his elite services in 2018, having first spent a year there on loan to balance the books.
Mbappe was already installed as one of the game's brightest youngsters then, while Ronaldo's United arrival was more circumspect. The £12.24m fee was still sizeable for the time – 26.6% of Zinedine Zidane's then world-record £46m move from Juventus to Real Madrid for someone with just 33 senior appearances for club and country – but even Mbappe went for 82% of that Neymar figure.
Whatever way you look at it, Mbappe is set to break many of Ronaldo's staggering returns, even if the Portuguese only began finding his goalscoring boots later on in his career.
Immortality awaits, and Mbappe could make a big step towards it this season.
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Andrew Murray is a freelance journalist, who regularly contributes to both the FourFourTwo magazine and website. Formerly a senior staff writer at FFT and a fluent Spanish speaker, he has interviewed major names such as Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Sergio Aguero and Xavi. He was also named PPA New Consumer Journalist of the Year 2015.
