Kylian Mbappe put in same bracket as Lionel Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo as France boss Didier Deschamps explains PSG star's importance to the national team

The Paris Saint-Germain forward is considered to have been among the very best in the business for some time now, with a meteoric rise to prominence enjoyed since making a senior breakthrough at Monaco. He became a World Cup winner in 2018 – before netting a hat-trick in the 2022 final – and is PSG’s all-time leading scorer at just 24 years of age.

Explaining Mbappe’s importance and why he occupies a similar standing to Ballon d’Or winners Messi and Ronaldo, France boss Deschamps has told Le Parisien: “Is the French team stronger with Kylian Mbappe? Yes, just as Argentina is stronger with Messi and Portugal with Ronaldo. These extraordinary players make their team sublime. It’s been like that for as long as soccer has existed. After that, Kylian is part of a collective and knows full well that he needs the others.”

Mbappe finished third in the 2023 Ballon d’Or vote – as Messi claimed that prize for the eighth time in his record-shattering career – but the exciting French frontman is expected to land a Golden Ball of his own at some point in the near future.

Mbappe has scored 46 goals in 75 appearances for France - placing him third on their all-time scoring chart, 10 efforts behind Olivier Giroud – and has found the target on 230 occasions through 279 outings for Ligue 1 title holders PSG. Only the likes of Messi and Ronaldo, who are now plying their trade at Inter Miami and Al-Nassr respectively, can claim to have matched that kind of output over recent years.