Before the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi to the world football stage, the elite of the sport shared honors each year like handing out candies. No one claimed the throne decisively. The Ballon d'Or had ten different winners between 1998 and 2008, the first golden year for the Portuguese. There were idols and icons, but we did not see a dictatorship as strong as the one imposed by the Portuguese and the Argentine. Without them, football now walks in uncertainty about whether someone will take on that challenge or if we will return the ball's sword back to the stone. Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland are called and obligated, by talent and context, to try. Today they face each other for the first time in the modern classic of world football, with several similarities, some differences, and much at stake.
Mbappé, 26 years old, and Haaland, 24 years old, are by numbers the heirs of Cristiano and Messi. No one has accumulated as many goals, broken as many precocity records, and threatened the statistics of the two legends like them. 354 goals and 139 assists in 488 for the Frenchman, with a goal value action per game. And 288 goals and 53 assists in 351 matches for the Norwegian, with 0.97 goal value actions per game. Virtually tied.
The Ballon d'Or, however, is still waiting. In 2022, Erling was tenth and Kylian sixth. In 2023, second and third, and this last year, fifth and sixth. Defeated by Benzema, Messi, and Rodri, as if something was missing for them to rise and deserve the throne. Perhaps that's why both have made two key decisions in recent months.
Two key moves
In the summer, Mbappé signed with Madrid. A natural step for a player boxed in the French league, a World Cup champion so early that it was intimidating, and perhaps stagnant in this last stage in Paris, far from touching a trophy in Europe. His arrival at the Bernabéu should elevate him even more in conversations about the ball's throne, and he is obliged to respond to it. So far, he has scored 23 goals, 16 of them in the league, five behind Harry Kane and Mo Salah, and three behind Robert Lewandowski and Haaland.
The Norwegian, surpassed by Messi in the 2023 golden award, when he won the treble with City and aspired to be the best in the world, renewed his contract with the Manchester team for ten more seasons in winter. Quite something. An announcement that solidifies his position at the Etihad and reinforces him as a major star of the team and the Premier League.
These two decisions make Mbappé and Haaland the two focal points around which the two most important leagues in the world will revolve, clashing each season in the Champions League in this constant Madrid-City, the biggest match in the world this decade, which will now see its fourth consecutive showdown and the fifth in the last six seasons.
Meeting in the spring of 2022
Enemies now, both had their names marked in red on Real Madrid's wish list just three or four years ago. Both, like now, were seen as heirs to Cristiano Ronaldo at Chamartín and as the ideal option to form the forward line. Then Vinicius appeared, Benzema extended his legend for a couple more years, with a 2021-2022 season of the Ballon d'Or, and Haaland chose City.
In the spring of 2022, the Norwegian, eager to leave Dortmund, had met with Madrid's representatives, who at that time had a "yes" from Mbappé, but he ended up choosing Guardiola's team as he understood that Benzema still had something more to give.
It's the forward line that never was and now only exists in Nike ads, the latest battleground for this Mbappé-Haaland. They do not share a football team, but unlike Messi and Cristiano, who wore Adidas and Nike, the Frenchman and the Norwegian do have the same main sponsor, although there is still a rivalry. That's how stars are.
Led in the boardrooms by two key women in their lives, Fayza Lamari, Kylian's mother, and Rafaela Pimenta, Erling's representative, their commercial battle for the spotlight is almost as interesting as the sporting one. Just over a year ago, Haaland spent weeks wearing Puma and Adidas boots to pressure Nike in his contract negotiation. Pimenta promised to make him the highest-paid footballer by the brand and succeeded: 25 million per year, more than Cristiano Ronaldo and Mbappé.
Meanwhile, the Frenchman signed for 14 million a year in 2019, but Haaland's deal has forced his circle to raise their sights, and his move to Madrid has provided a commercial boost that he is not willing to lose. For the brand, his signing with the Chamartín club is a blow to Adidas, the team's sponsor and Bellingham's, as the forward line composed of Mbappé and Vinicius wears the American brand. That's the power Kylian wants to exert, which could push for a renegotiation or start his own line within the company.
For now, tonight Kylian and Erling will face each other for the first time in blue and white.