UEFA Best Player: best player of the 6th round of the Champions League? French mature youngster Kylian Mbappé destroys historical records

The most exclusive club competition in the world, the Champions League, has concluded the autumn part of the group stage. The Ruik.cz portal, which represents the Czech Republic in the Best Player UEFA poll of the German magazine Kicker, was looking for the best player as usual. French mature youngster Kylian Mbappé is destroying historical records.

He will only be twenty-three years old at the end of the year, but France’s mature youngster Kylian Mbappé has already made his mark among the world’s football legends. He is a World Champion in both the adult (2018) and under-19 (2016) categories, he has donned the crown of the best under-21 player in Italian newspaper Tuttosport’s Golden Boy poll (2017), and he has won the French league four times.

“He has enormous potential, he will achieve a lot in his career,” prophesies former Czechoslovak and Czech national player Günter Bittengel.

The Paris native with African roots (his father is from Cameroon, his mother from Algeria) is also making a name for himself in the Champions League. With Paris Saint-Germain, he has already mourned the final loss to Bayern Munich last year, and now he wants to finally reach the top.

And he is doing just that, scoring two goals and assisting another against Belgium’s FC Brugge. “These are great numbers,” comments Bittengel. “He played his fiftieth game in the Champions League, scoring his thirtieth goal. Who has achieved that at his age?” he asks.

“It’s not just about statistics, but also execution. Both goals capture his quickness, his choice of position, his flair for finishing,” he calculates. “Add to that the goal pass to Messi, when he showed his vision in action,” Bittengel adds further value.

Karel Brettscheinder, bookmaker at the Chance bookmaker, is of the same opinion. “A match that no longer mattered for PSG brought an offensive performance from the stars of the French team,” he first analyses the situation in the group.

“The absence of Neymar may mean Mbappé will show who is the best player on the team,” he discusses. “This time he only needed seven minutes to split the net twice. He was also involved in the action before the third goal and there was nothing to solve,” Brettscheinder points out.

However, the French club giant finished behind Manchester City in the group, which will be a disadvantage in the knockout system. He will not be seeded. That’s a challenge for Mbappé as well. “We’ll see how he fares in the tougher games in the spring part of the Champions League,” muses Brettscheinder. “It turns out that engaging Messi may be no guarantee of success and there is room for improvement in PSG’s play,” he warns, however.

Permanent jury member Erich Brabec has found another bombshell. “Timo Verner,” he reveals his choice. “He also scored two goals against Zenit St. Petersburg and assisted the third,” he extracts the same statistics of the German striker in the service of English defending trophy winners Chelsea FC. “Moreover, outdoors,” he throws in another argument in favour of his chosen one.

However, he puts the sporting aspect even higher, i.e. the performance in the match that decided – unlike the Paris Saint-Germian and Chelsea matches – the promotion. “For me, the man of the round is Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak,” Brabec declares.

“In the direct match for promotion against FC Porto, on Portuguese soil, he caught two huge chances for the home team in a goalless draw, and scored a goal when Atlético’s victory was already decided,” defends his choice of the former Czech international.

The jury’s vote

Günter Bittengel:: Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain)

Erich Brabec:: Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid)

Karel Brettscheinder:: Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain)

Source: UEFA