Kylian Mbappé, Désiré Doué, Lionel Messi & Co. – Players to score the most Champions League goals before turning 21

Full list revealed 

There was plenty of drama in the opening Champions League play-off fixture in Monaco this Tuesday. The Principality side raced in to an early 2-0 lead against their Ligue 1 rivals and current Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, before the Parisians turned things around to win 3-2 thanks to a brace from substitute Désiré Doué. The 20-year replaced the injured Ousmane Dembélé around the hour mark and continued his impressive form in Europe’s elite competition.

Doué now already has as many as nine Champions League goals, including one in last term’s final, but where does that rank the Frenchman when it comes to the players with the most goals scored in the competition before turning 21 years of age? Let’s find out. All stats are taken from the start of the 1992/93 season when the European Cup was reformatted as the Champions League.

Players with most Champions League goals before turning 21

Leading the way is goal-machine Erling Haaland, who had incredibly scored 20 Champions League goals in just 16 matches before turning 21 years of age for Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund. The Norwegian narrowly beats second-placed Kylian Mbappé, who managed 19 goals in 31 matches aged 20 or younger for Monaco and PSG. Third position goes to Karim Benzema who had scored 12 goals in 17 Champions League matches before turning 21 for Lyon. Jude Bellingham is fourth with 10 goals in 34 games for Dortmund and Real Madrid before his 21st birthday.

As illustrated in the graphic above, Doué now ranks fifth with his nine goals in 21 games, and he doesn’t turn 21 until June, so could continue climbing this list this season. Patrick Kluivert is sixth with nine goals in 22 games, whilst Madrid legend Raúl (eighth) and Lionel Messi (10th) also feature in the top 10. Remarkably, the all-time top Champions League scorer Cristiano Ronaldo does not feature at all, having failed to score in ay of his 18 games in the competition before he turned 21 years of age.