The record for the most goals in a single Champions League campaign still belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo, and fans will likely have to wait until next year to see if anyone can challenge it. Kylian Mbappe had a strong chance of matching the milestone, but Real Madrid’s elimination against Bayern Munich has ended that pursuit.
Mbappe scored his team’s third goal just before the end of the first half, putting Real Madrid up 3-2 on the night and leveling the aggregate score at 4-4. With that strike, the Frenchman reached 15 goals, solidifying his position as the top scorer in this edition of the Champions League, though his tally is now final.
As a result, while Cristiano Ronaldo is currently playing away from European soccer, his record of 17 goals during Real Madrid’s 2013-14 title run remains safe. Despite falling short of the Portuguese legend’s total, Mbappe achieved something neither Messi nor Ronaldo ever did: he scored 10 away goals, setting a new record for the most tallies away from home in a single season.
Could Harry Kane match Ronaldo’s mark?
With the tournament’s leading scorer now eliminated, Harry Kane is the highest-scoring player still active in the competition. The English striker currently has 12 goals and mathematically remains in the hunt to reach Ronaldo’s mark.
Harry Kane celebrates a goal vs Real Madrid. (Getty Images)
However, achieving that goal will be a monumental task. Kane is guaranteed at least two more matches in the semifinals against PSG, where he would need to score at least five goals just to equal the record. Should Bayern Munich advance to the final, he would have an additional game to work with, though the target remains incredibly difficult to hit.
Mbappe joins elite Champions League scorer group
Although Mbappe can no longer break the record this season, he has joined an exclusive pantheon of Champions League goalscorers. By netting his 15th goal of the campaign, Mbappe becomes only the fourth player in history to reach that milestone in a single season, joining Cristiano Ronaldo (2017-18), Karim Benzema (2021-22), and Robert Lewandowski (2019-20).
Ronaldo is the undisputed goalscorer master of the Champions League. With a total of 140 goals, he also holds the second-place spot for the most goals scored in a single season, with 16 tallies in the 2015-16 campaign.
