Mbappé ends scoring drought to revive Pichichi chase and Cristiano target

Kylian Mbappé brought his LaLiga scoring drought to an end against Alavés, halting a run that had stretched close to two months without a goal in domestic competition. The French star now resumes his pursuit of back-to-back Pichichi titles, a race in which Vedat Muriqi had been closing in dangerously. The Real Madrid forward now sits on 24 league goals, compared to the Mallorca striker’s 21.

That goal against Alavés also allows Mbappé to maintain a remarkable – almost old-fashioned – scoring record. This season, he has scored more goals than games played: 41 in 40 appearances.

The Madrid No. 10 had found the net in both legs of the Champions League tie against Bayern Munich, but in the domestic league he had not scored since February 8, when he sealed a 2–0 win over Valencia at Mestalla. In that stretch, he missed four games and then went another four without scoring. Before that slowdown, he was on pace to surpass the 31 goals that earned him last season’s Pichichi. He now trails that mark by seven goals with six games remaining.

The precedent from a year ago offers encouragement. At this same stage last season, Mbappé had 22 league goals, but an extraordinary late surge – nine goals in the final five games – propelled him to both the Pichichi and the European Golden Shoe.

Mbappé chasing Ronaldo benchmark

Those six remaining fixtures now present another challenge: maintaining an average of more than one goal per game. Only 14 times in Real Madrid history has a player finished a season with more goals than appearances, according to BeSoccer Pro data (minimum 10 goals). Since Ferenc Puskás scored 48 goals in 36 games in 1959–60 and 44 in 41 in 1960–61, only one player in the past 65 years has matched such extraordinary output: Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese forward achieved the feat not once, but four times – in 2011–12 (60 goals in 55 games), 2013–14 (51/47), 2014–15 (54/61), and 2015–16 (51/48). He also matched his games tally in two other seasons: 2012–13 (55/55) and 2017–18 (44/44).

Mbappé’s 41 goals this season break down as follows: two in the Copa del Rey, 24 in LaLiga, and 15 in 11 Champions League games. Despite Madrid’s elimination, he could still finish as the competition’s top scorer. Harry Kane trails with 12 goals, while Julián Álvarez (9) and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (8) are further behind.

Assists: Mbappé’s lingering weakness

As he approaches his 100th appearance for Real Madrid, Mbappé’s main shortcoming remains his involvement in goals he does not finish himself. Creating chances for others has not been as prominent a feature of his game in Spain as it was in Paris. He has five assists this season, the same number he recorded last year.

Those figures fall well short of the standards he set during his seven seasons at Paris Saint-Germain. His lowest assist tally there came in 2022–23, when he still managed nine. The season before marked his peak, with 21 assists – leading the team in that category.

During the 2021–22 campaign, he was involved – either scoring or assisting – in more than half (53.6%) of PSG’s 112 goals. He scored 39 himself, and his 21 assists accounted for 28.8% of goals he did not finish. Across those seven seasons, he contributed to 37.3% of PSG’s goals, scoring 27.3% and assisting 13.8% of the rest.

In his two years at Madrid, his overall involvement remains similar (37%), but it is more heavily weighted toward scoring (33.1%), with a reduced role as a provider. Only 5.8% of Madrid’s goals not scored by Mbappé have come from his passes.

At PSG, players such as Neymar (21 assists received), Mauro Icardi (13), and Lionel Messi (12) benefited from his 94 assists. At Madrid, Vinícius Júnior has been his primary recipient so far, with four. Mbappé’s most recent assist set up Vinícius for the winning goal against Benfica in the first leg of their Champions League playoff.

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