French assistant coach Guy Stephan has compared Kylian Mbappe to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as he continues his stunning World Cup.

The 23-year-old has been prolific for Les Bleus in Qatar, netting five goals in four matches thus far.

Mbappe is more than capable of surpassing Giroud’s record
AFP
France have certainly had no shortage of quality up front in recent years
Getty

Mbappe’s strikes have now taken him to 33 goals for France, putting him seventh in their all time list of scorers.

Olivier Giroud’s 52nd goal for his country, which came against Poland in the Round of 16, saw him overtake Thierry Henry for the no.1 spot in the rankings, but Mbappe has every chance of soon going one step further.

Speaking in a press conference, Stephan lauded the Paris Saint-Germain forward’s chances of breaking the record for himself, and compared him to two of the best to ever grace the game: “I don’t know how long his record will stand.

“If we compare him to Henry it’s the same number of caps which shows how well he’s done.

“Maybe Mbappe could break it. He’s a very big player like Messi and Ronaldo and is off the planet with his skills. He’s very inventive. His amazing technical ability is shown every game which is important.”

He later added: “Mbappe sees this as the summit of his season but he’s calm and smiley and shares his good humour around the squad.

Mbappe has been likened to his PSG teammate Messi
AFP
Mbappe now has more World Cup goals than legend Ronaldo
AFP or licensors


“He brings plenty of joy into the group and his thirsty for records and will keep on beating them. He holds the cards.”

Mbappe now has more World Cup goals than Ronaldo, despite him only playing in his second ever edition of the competition compared to the latter’s fifth.

He is set to face England on Saturday in the quarter-finals, with both sides eyeing a spot in the last-four for the second consecutive tournament.

Giroud may well be France’s highest scorer for now but should Mbappe maintain his excellent international form, the latter could soon make the title his own.

talkSPORT World Cup 2022 Coverage

talkSPORT is bringing you wall-to-wall coverage of the 2022 World Cup.

We are broadcasting all 64 games in the tournament live, with over 600 hours of coverage across our network.

You can tune in to talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com.

talkSPORT is widely available across the UK via DAB digital radio and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

You can also download the talkSPORT app, or ask your smart speaker to play talkSPORT.

By

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *