Kylian Mbappe, the talisman of France NT has overtaken Edinson Cavani as the all-time highest scorer in Ligue 1 for Paris Saint Germain.
The 24-year-old has already surpassed Edinson Cavani, who scored 200 goals for PSG between 2013 and 2020, to top the club’s all-time scoring record last month.
However, Cavani was still PSG’s co-leading scorer in Ligue 1 up until this past weekend. That changed after Mbappe’s 139th Ligue 1 goal for the team during Saturday’s 3-1 home victory against Lens.
🔝⚽️✨@KMbappe becomes the top scorer in PSG history in #Ligue1 with 1⃣3⃣9⃣ goals 🙌❤️💙#PSGRCL pic.twitter.com/Wc3ITTYJid
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_English) April 15, 2023
With 138 Ligue 1 goals, Cavani is currently second on the record, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic is third with 113.
Kylian Mbappe scored his 201st goal against Nantes in March, making him Paris St. Germain’s all-time top scorer across all competitions. Compared to Edinson Cavani, who needed 301 games to score 200 goals, Mbappe reached this milestone in far less time (247 games versus 301 games). Mbappe joined the club from Monaco in 2017 with a huge transfer fee of 135M euros. He has since become one of their most important players, if not the most important.
How did the game go for PSG?
Mbappe’s goal also helped secure a key victory for Paris St-Germain in a top-of-the-league table clash against Lens. Lens was down to 10 men after midfielder Salis Abdul Samed was sent off barely 19 minutes into the game.
Along with Mbappe’s record-shattering goal, both Vitinha and Lionel Messi also scored goals to secure a 3-1 win. Len’s Przemyslaw Frankowski scored their only goal through a penalty.
After receiving a pass from midfielder Vitinha, Mbappe swiftly twisted before scoring his league-high 20th goal of the year in the 31st minute with a first-time shot into the bottom right corner. Six minutes later, Vitinha doubled the advantage with a 25-yard shot into the same corner.
The Argentine captain Messi then teamed up with Mbappe in the 40th minute, who backheeled the ball to him for a low shot. Messi then scored his fifteenth league goal of the season.
Second-placed Lens produced many opportunities despite being down 3-0 at the half, but they were unable to take advantage of them, allowing PSG to move closer to winning the league championship again.
With only seven games left, the defending champions are already nine points in front and quite certain to win their 11th league title, breaking the previous French record.
Manager Christophe Galtier spoke after the game, “We must not think that it’s done and dusted. We will need to remain serious and determined to maintain our lead and not give any hope to the teams chasing us.”
PSG will now face Angers at their stadium on Saturday to continue their title race.
