A debut goal, stunning hat-tricks and a bunch of records, Kylian Mbappé has written Paris Saint-Germain history in the 200 competitive appearances he has made for the nine-time French champions.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup winner stepped off the bench to bring up the milestone with the capital club in the Coupe de France Round of 16 defeat to OGC Nice — ligue1.com highlights five of the stunning steps along the way.
A GOALSCORING DEBUT
Mbappé — aged just 18 when he joined PSG from Monaco in summer 2017 — had already impressed in the principality, but his big-money arrival in the capital meant there were question marks over how he would fit in. But should anyone have had any doubts?
WATCH: Mbappé's PSG debut in a 5-1 rout of Metz
"I've always wanted to play with great players. Here, I have that opportunity, so I'm going to take advantage of it. I'm enjoying it and I try to learn from them," said Mbappé after netting a superb goal on his first Ligue 1 Uber Eats appearance for his new employers as Metz felt the full force of Unai Emery's star-studded squad. "It was a nice goal. I reacted quicker than the defender and I placed it with power. After it went in, we ran riot."
KM DESTROYS LYON
This was the stand-out team display in a record run of 14 successives wins to start the 2018/19 season under Thomas Tuchel, and Mbappé was the star performer scoring four and winning the penalty for the other in a 5-0 rout that turned OL into LOL.
At 19 years and nine months, Mbappé became the youngest player to score four times in the same top-flight match in France since 1973, and they came in a devastating, scintillating 13-minute burst.
WATCH: Mbappé tames Lyon
"The smallest error, the slightest tactical misjudgement costs you dearly up against forwards with such quality in their speed and movement," said a dejected Lyon boss Bruno Genesio. "It was incredible, fantastic," said his counterpart Tuchel. "But I'm not surprised, because I know they're capable of special things."
BACK TO HAUNT MONACO
Mbappé netted 27 goals in 60 top-flight matches for Monaco, announcing himself as a teenage prodigy with the potential to dominate European and international football for a decade. He has gone on to do that, and the team where he made his name is also among the conquered.
He has found the net nine times in eight Ligue 1 Uber Eats matches against his former employers, his best record against a top-flight opponent bar one, and three of them came when he got all his team's goals in a 3-1 win in April 2019.
WATCH: Mbappé hits a hat-trick against Monaco
"For me, it's special," said the PSG forward, who replaced Thierry Henry as Monaco's youngest Ligue 1 debutant when he stepped onto the Stade Louis II pitch against Caen on 2 December 2015 aged 16 years, 11 months. "I played there for a long time, and I still have friends there. But when you play for Paris Saint-Germain, there's no place for sentiment. You have to win."
100 LIGUE 1 GOALS
There was another record to add to his growing collection when he reached a century of top-flight strikes. He struck twice in a 4-2 win at Lyon — who must be sick of the sight of him! — in Round 30 of the 2020/21 season to bring up his 100th Ligue 1 Uber Eats goal and become the youngest player to achieve the feat, beating Hervé Revelli's mark by quite some margin: 22 years and 91 days to 23 years and 153 days.
WATCH: Mbappé scores his 100th league goal
Mbappé had netted his 100th competitive goal for PSG in December 2020 after just 137 games — it had taken another club icon, Dominique Rocheteau, a full 117 matches more to reach the same tally.
"Two hundred is still a long way off," he said after finding the net in a 3-1 win over Montpellier in Round 13 of the 2020/21 campaign.
200TH SENIOR GOAL
As it happens, not all that far off…A hat-trick in the first outing of 2022 — the 4-0 Coupe de France win over Vannes — took him over the next, and certainly not the last, milestone of his career: 149 goals with PSG, 27 with Monaco, and 24 for France to make it 200 in his senior career.
In fact, it wasn't even the last milestone of the game as it brought up his 150th goal for PSG — he ended the match on 151 — putting him behind only Zlatan Ibrahimovic (156) and Edinson Cavani (200) among the club's all-time leading goalscorers.
WATCH: Mbappé nets his 100th league goal for PSG
He had already brought up three figures in Ligue 1 Uber Eats for PSG less than a month earlier against — yes, you've guessed it — Monaco in his club's 2-0 win in Round 18.
