Kylian Mbappe becomes Champions League's fifth all-time top goalscorer

Dubai: Real Madrid opened their 2026/27 UEFA Champions League campaign with a 2-1 win against Jose Mourinho's former club Inter Milan. Goals in the first half by Kylian Mbappe and Federico Valverde were enough to give the Los Blancos their first win, courtesy of blunders from the Inter defense and goalkeeper Josep Martinez.

The first goal of the game marked Mbappe's fifth goal for the ongoing season in all competitions. However, it also brought in a change in Champions League's all-time scoring list. The Frenchman now has 71 goals through 99 games in the European competition, joining Real Madrid legend Raul Gonzalez as the fifth all-time top goalscorer in the competition.

While he needs one more goal to surpass the former Los Blancos forward, Mbappe would then have more gap to catch up with the men above him in the list. Karim Benzema has 91 goals while the top three have more than a century of goals under their name.

The former Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona star Robert Lewandowski has 109 goals, remaining at the no. 3 position. Lionel Messi's 129 goals put him behind the Champions League's all-time top goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo, who has put the ball 141 times in the net.

Though it may not be soon, but possibility of Mbappe taking over the Portuguese in the list is not impossible. The new Champions League format has more games compared to the days of Ronaldo and Messi, giving newer generation more opportunities to score.

Moments before kickoff against Inter, Mbappe was honored with Golden Boot trophy for his 15 goals in 11 matches in last season's Champions League campaign. French forward has a scoring clip of 0.72 goals per match, which means he would require another 81 possible games to catch up to Messi and 96 match to beat all-time leader Ronaldo.