Well, it’s official. Olivier Giroud is now a better striker than Thierry Henry ever was or Golden Boot wintter Karim Benzema ever will be, at least for country if not for club. That’s the only rational, sane conclusion to be drawn from the fact that Giroud has now overtaken Henry as the all-time leading scorer for Les Bleus, courtesy of his goal in France’s 3-1 stroll past Poland and into the World Cup quarterfinals. Anyone doing a spit-take with their coffee, tea, or scotch will do well to note that Giroud scored his 52nd goal in just 116 matches. It took that tosser Thierry 123 to score 51. You can’t spell “over-rated” without…well…to be honest, I expected more of letters from Henry’s name to appear in “over-rated” and have painted myself in a bit a of a corner here.
However, all snark aside, it’s momentous to say the least to see someone like Giroud surpass someone like Henry. To a degree, it reflects the fact that Henry had to share the ball with the likes of Zidane and Trezeguet, who actually scored goals at a higher rate (0.48 goals per match) than Henry (0.41) or Giroud (0.45). When Giroud matched Henry’s mark, we revisited the idea that we should have maybe held on to the man. However, for a second time in the same paragraph, Giroud will soon be eclipsed by Mbappé, who’s been scoring 0.54 goals per match for France, a pace that boggles the mind considering how often France progress deep into World Cup play. He’s hardly feasting on minnows (even if a brace against Poland is somewhat less impressive than, say, a single goal against England.
That brings me to my main concern, namely that Mbappé will never rise to the lofty levels Henry set. At the rate he’s going, yes, he will certainly surpass Henry and Giroud for goals scored for France. That’s a given. Staying at PSG, though, will only ossify him as a flat-track bully running rings ’round a bunch of cheese-eating surrender monkeys on a weekly basis. Where’s the challenge? Where’s the impetus to dig deeper, to push, to train, to excel? For as preposterous as his goal-scoring pace for France is, it’s even moreso for PSG for whom he’s scored 131 goals in 156 appearances (0.839 goals per match, for those lacking the maths). For as much as that says about Mbappé, it says a heck of a lot more about the quality of the resistance he faces on a weekly basis, which is to say, all the resistance of Kleenex at a snot party.
By contrast, Henry faced tough, physical defenses, some of the world’s best defenders and goalies, and some of the parked of parked buses every single week. This forced him to push himself to his physcial limits, overcoming ruthless, cynical fouls, indifferent referees, eight and nine opponents between him and goal, and myriad other obstacles on his way to scoring 174 goals in 254 e. If there’s any real wonder, it’s in that Henry couldn’t translate that kind of form over to the les Bleus. 51 goals in 123 matches is nothing to sniff at, but, at a risk of disrespecting Giroud, one might have expected more from Henry.
Back to Mbappé, though. He’ll almost certainly overtake Giroud as France’s all-time leading scorer. He’ll turn 24 just after this World Cup and already has 31 goals. Should he stay at PSG, scoring at the rate he’s been scoring, he’ll sprint past Henry’s record at Arsenal in less than two years. He’ll continue gather domestic trophies like they’re Pokemon cards.Will that anoint him as a legend? Will that be enough for him to join the pantheon of football legends? Maybe, maybe not. PSG have after all won the Ligue 1 title in each of Mbappé’s four seasons there…but they’ve also won it in eight of the last ten seasons. Should PSG finally win the Champions League, that might change the narrative around Mbappé at least somewhat, but I’m not sure it would be enough to elevate him into those loftier echelons inhabited by the likes of Henry, Ronaldo, Messi, and others.
Look, I like Mbappé. I want him to succeed, as long as it’s not against Arsenal in any way. In fact, I want to see what he’s truly capable of. I just worry that staying at PSG will cause him to stagnate. Between the weekly cakewalks and the managerial churn (he’s had four different managers in six years), and the feeling that the players run the club it’s not an environment designed to bring out his best. Unfortunately for Arsenal, he’s probably priced way beyond our budget both for his fee and wages. There are probably only two or three clubs in the world that can afford him. His failed flirtation with Real Madrid last summer may have soured that relationship beyond repair, but who knows? As freakishly good as he’s been, he’s only going to get better for club and country. The question then is, what club would challenge, mentor, and inspire him to rise to the heights his dizzying talent point to? What club has a history of plucking exciting young French talent from Monaco’s youth program and seeing them explode? Hmm….
