Kylian Mbappé Hailed As ‘No. 1 Player In The World’ As He Breaks The Net In Champions League Bout

French phenom Kylian Mbappé, 25, had a night to remember in the Champions League last Tuesday, scoring two goals against Real Sociedad to help Paris-Saint-Germain advance to the quarterfinals of Europe’s most glorified competition in soccer.

One of those goals broke the net.

Mbappé broke down the left wing with pace on a counterattack which left only one defender to try to stop him. After some quick feet, Mbappé was able to create an opening for a shot, which he lashed across the goalkeeper and found the bottom corner in the 15th minute of the match.

Such was the power of his strike that it actually broke the netting. There have been flukey situations in soccer where the netting on a goal has been ripped before, but the amount of raw power it takes to rip a net with a ball from that distance is something rarely observed in modern European soccer. The referees were forced to pause the game while the net was repaired.

His second goal came from another break down the left side where he caught up to an over-the-top through ball and sneakily whipped the ball to the near post after opening up his body to appear as if he would curl it toward the far post. He wrong-footed goalkeeper Alejandro Remiro and effectively ended the tie 11 minutes into the second half.

After a 2-0 victory in the first leg and a 2-0 lead in the second, Mikel Merino’s goal for Sociedad late in the second half was a mere consolation as PSG advanced 4-1 on aggregate.

“We’re really happy,” Mbappé noted in a post-match press conference. “That was the objective, we wanted to qualify, but we also wanted to win. We had a game plan that was clear, and we managed to score early. We didn’t come under too much pressure, just a little at the end.”

“[Scoring goals] is what I do,” he added. “It’s what I like to do, what I can do. My job is to help the team score goals, to help offensively, defensively, and today, I did a nice job.”

Mbappé, who is reportedly leaving the club to join Real Madrid in Spain at the end of the season, now sits at the top of the charts for goals scored in the Champions League this season with six, tied with Harry Kane who also bagged a brace last Tuesday for Bayern Munich.

“He’ll score 50 goals and get 25 assists with whatever coach in whichever team. Unfortunately, in the immediate future, he won’t be here, and we have to start trying out other teammates,” PSG manager Luis Enrique noted after the game.

Erling Haaland, the leading goal scorer for Manchester City, sits a goal behind at five but will have more opportunities to catch up in the quarterfinal round. According to former Manchester United and England defender gone game analyst Rio Ferdinand though, there’s no one he’d rather build a team around in the game today than Mbappé.

“I’d pay every day to watch him train let alone play in a match because he creates things on his own. I can give him the ball at left-back and he might score. I can give him the ball anywhere on the pitch and he could create something,” Ferdinand said.

“But Mbappé’s just got that something different that would make me sit up at night and go: ‘Thank you, God.’”

Article by Nathan Weick

USports writing intern and second year student-athlete at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA pursuing BA in Professional Writing and BA in Spanish/Hispanic Cultures. Juniata College Mens Soccer Captain and former president of the Juniata College Class of 2026.