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Kylian Mbappe vs Cristiano Ronaldo: Real Madrid’s icons of past and future collide as France take on Portugal at Euro 2024

Posted on by angelo

Image source, Getty Images

Legend, The last time Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé shared a pitch in a competitive match was in 2018.

  • Author, Emma Smith
  • Role, BBC sports journalist

Growing up, Kylian Mbappe had pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo on his wall. On Friday, Mbappe will face Ronaldo in the flesh.

France and Portugal face off in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024. While many world-class players will be in action for both teams, it’s hard to escape a gladiatorial duel between Ronaldo and Mbappe.

This is not the first time the two icons have shared a pitch. They met in the 2017-18 Champions League round of 16, when Real Madrid easily beat Mbappe’s PSG 5-2 on aggregate – en route to Ronaldo’s fourth and final Champions League trophy in Spain.

But they had never met before at a major international tournament, with Mbappe yet to make the senior France squad when they were beaten by Ronaldo’s Portugal in the Euro 2016 final.

Video caption, Kylian Mbappé: from his humble beginnings in Bondy to his idol Cristiano Ronaldo as a child

And this game in Hamburg has a completely different context to that of the Champions League encounter six years ago. Back then, Mbappé was just a 19-year-old on loan from Monaco, full of potential and much hype, but far from a finished product.

Now 25, he is widely regarded as the best player in the world and the man on whose slender shoulders rest France’s hopes of winning their first European title since 2000 – sometimes rather uncomfortably in this tournament.

Mbappe will join Real Madrid this summer, where he is expected to be the main man. The focal point and the main attraction. That was the role Ronaldo played in his prime.

Six years later, Ronaldo, away from his football club in Saudi Arabia, remains a centre of attention who still attracts attention.

The 39-year-old’s role in the Portugal team is the subject of much discussion after a last-16 clash with Slovenia that was summed up by missed free-kicks, a saved penalty and floods of tears.

But Ronaldo is still capable of showing his mettle when needed, scoring his penalty in the shootout – although it was goalkeeper Diogo Costa who was most in the spotlight with three consecutive saves.

Can Mbappe surpass Ronaldo in Madrid?

Video caption, Cristiano Ronaldo’s tears after missed penalty for ‘playing with his heart’ – Analysis

So that’s the plot of the showdown that will take place on Friday night under the spotlight. A former Real Madrid legend versus someone hoping to achieve that status.

If this were a Hollywood script, the most likely narrative would be one where the baton is passed, France beat Portugal and Mbappe fully assumes Ronaldo’s old mantle.

But football doesn’t operate on a calendar, as Ronaldo knows. At 25, Portugal were knocked out of the 2010 World Cup in the round of 16 by eventual winners Spain. It took him another six years to get his hands on an international trophy.

By 2010, Ronaldo had already won three Premier League titles, a Champions League and the first of his five Ballons d’Or. Against Pep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona, ​​his gold rush with Real Madrid had yet to begin.

By comparison, Mbappe has seven Ligue 1 titles, including six in a PSG team with far greater resources than its competitors in France, and no Champions League trophies so far.

He does, however, have something Ronaldo will likely never possess: a World Cup winner’s medal, won in 2018 at the age of just 19.

So could Mbappe surpass Ronaldo at Madrid if he follows the same path? It seems likely. Barcelona are a diminished force compared to the one Ronaldo faced in his early days. There is no Lionel Messi or Guardiola.

Real Madrid are the reigning champions at national and continental level, and can only be strengthened by the arrival of Mbappé.

Ronaldo scored 33 goals in 35 games in his first season in Madrid – a tally that Mbappe has surpassed in five of his seven campaigns at PSG, and which looks well within reach in 2024-25.

Mbappe has scored 287 goals in his club career so far, while Ronaldo only managed 118 before joining Madrid. While Mbappe has occasionally played in a central position for PSG, both men have mainly occupied the wing spaces before the Bernabeu.

After disappointing tournaments, it’s time to shine

Image source, Getty Images

Legend, Mbappe and France advance to quarter-finals with late own goal against Belgium

Off the pitch, Mbappe has some catching up to do. Ronaldo remains an icon in Madrid, owns a CR7-branded hotel in the city, attracts more than half a billion followers on his social media accounts and even has a galaxy named after him.

But Mbappe, who was PSG’s main attraction and major selling point during his time there, will be placed on a similar pedestal once he arrives in Madrid.

Before all these flourishes and debates on social networks, the little question of a quarter-final of Euro 2024.

Neither man has yet set the tournament alight. Mbappe appears hampered by a number of issues, including a broken nose in the opening match against Austria and having to play with the discomfort and distraction of a protective mask.

France’s style of play, as evidenced in their round of 16 win over Belgium, is characterised by a certain rigidity and a need to get anything promising in attack through Mbappe. When he is overloaded or out of form, the system doesn’t work – which led to the pre-tournament favourites failing to score from open play in four games in Germany.

Questions about Ronaldo, meanwhile, revolve around whether he should start after two disappointing, goalless performances against second-tier teams like Georgia and Slovenia, where at times Portugal’s brilliant attacking talent seemed actively hampered by the presence of a man more than a decade older than his team-mates.

Will an event as grandiose as this quarter-final allow one or both to give their best? We are waiting with bated breath.

If Mbappe emerges victorious, the journey from doe-eyed child admiring Ronaldo posters to the sport’s undisputed standard-bearer will surely be complete.