The next great football debate regarding who is the best player will likely be between Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland. With Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi at the end of their careers, there needs to be a new discussion.
As a result, all signs point to the Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain star carrying this debate for the next decade. However, on ESPN FC, Jan Aage Fjortoft and Frank Leboeuf explained what puts Mbappe ahead of Haaland in their international careers.
Haaland plays for Norway, who didn’t qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and didn’t play during the UEFA Euro 2020, so Mbappe can pull away from the discussion, tying him to the Manchester City forward based on international merits.
“I think it’s very important because Mbappe now he’s a world champion,” Fjortoft said on Saturday’s edition of the program. “He’s playing on an international stage. So I would say that he is ahead of Haaland now, absolutely.
“So I think that that will always have Mbappe ahead because, unfortunately, I can’t see Norway qualifying for a championship for some time because we don’t have the number of players needed to get there.”
If Mbappe helps lead France to back-to-back World Cups, especially this tournament, considering the number of injuries the French squad was dealt with before the competition even began, including losing Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema.
Watch the full segment here:
