Mbappe surpasses Messi with impressive La Liga goal-scoring record, but Cristiano Ronaldo remains ahead

Despite mixed team results, Kylian Mbappe has delivered a standout individual performance during his year and a half with Real Madrid. That form has allowed him to reach a remarkable La Liga milestone that even Lionel Messi never achieved, although Cristiano Ronaldo remains ahead in the category.

Last weekend, Real Madrid secured a crucial victory against Levante at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, which featured a hostile atmosphere toward some players, including Vinicius Junior. Mbappe played a decisive role in the result, scoring the opening goal via a penalty early in the second half.

With that goal, Mbappe became the second-fastest player to reach 50 goals in La Liga during the 21st century. He needed just 53 league matches with Real Madrid to reach the mark, combining his 31 goals in 34 appearances during the 2024-25 season with 19 goals in 19 matches so far this campaign.

From 2000 to the present, the only player with better numbers than the French forward is Cristiano Ronaldo. Also playing for Real Madrid, CR7 needed just 51 La Liga matches to score 50 goals, a milestone he reached during the 2010-11 season, his second year with the Spanish club after arriving from Manchester United.

How long did it take Messi to score 50 goals in La Liga?

Lionel Messi dominated countless goal-scoring records during his time with Barcelona. However, when it comes to the speed at which he reached his first 50 La Liga goals, this is not one of them. In fact, the Argentine superstar is well behind the figures posted by Mbappe and Ronaldo in this category.

Messi needed 103 La Liga matches to score his first 50 goals, more than double the number required by Cristiano Ronaldo. Not only that, the timeline was also significantly longer: while Ronaldo and Mbappe achieved the feat in their second seasons, Messi did so in his fifth campaign with Barcelona, during the 2008-09 season.

Mbappe and Ronaldo vs. Messi: Different moments in their careers

The stark contrast between Lionel Messi’s numbers and those of Kylian Mbappe and Cristiano Ronaldo has a logical explanation: the stage of each player’s career. Real Madrid signed both Ronaldo and Mbappe when they were already established global superstars who had proven themselves at other clubs, allowing them to arrive in Spain and perform at an elite level immediately.

Messi’s path was entirely different. He began his professional career with Barcelona and remained there until age 34, making it natural that his early La Liga seasons were less productive. Still, once he reached his peak, he produced numbers no other player — before or since — has been able to match. Messi remains the all-time leading scorer in La Liga history with 474 goals, holding a massive gap over second-place Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 311.