Ousmane Dembélé vs Kylian Mbappé
Mbappé won his first France cap as a substitute in a game Dembélé started; by 25 September 2026 the two had been team-mates in 101 games for France and PSG, and opponents in five.
By the Oddsivio teamLast reviewed Stats updated
Last season · club and country together · official matches
Who does what?
Kylian Mbappé scored more goals and completed a higher share of passes last season; Ousmane Dembélé, meanwhile, created more chances.
Worth knowing: Kylian Mbappé had 4,674 minutes to Ousmane Dembélé's 2,846 last season; the bigger sample is the steadier one.
What separates them
3 of 4 pass both our tests: a big enough gap, and sure enough to hold.
- Dembélé
- Mbappé
- Typical forwards
- Goals per 90Mbappé led0.8226 goals1.1057 goals
About a third more goals: about 8 more over 30 full matches.
Held up next season: about 8 in 10
- Chances created per 90Dembélé led2.993 chances2.5128 chances
About 14 more chances created over 30 full matches for Dembélé than Mbappé.
Held up next season: about 7 in 10
- Assists per 90Dembélé slightly ahead0.4113 assists0.2513 assists
Gaps like this held up about 6 in 10 times: not often enough to name a leader.
- Pass completion share of passes completedMbappé led83%50%100%86%
Pass completion depends a lot on role and team.
Held up next season: about 9 in 10
Per 90 = per 90 minutes played, so different minutes compare fairly.
Does it hold up?
Without penalties
Kylian Mbappé still led (0.81 vs 0.66 per 90; 42 goals to 21).
How they play · volume, not a lead
Kylian Mbappé tried far more take-ons (4.9 vs 2.5 per 90) and won far more duels (3.8 vs 2.4 per 90) last season.
Why this comparison
Dembélé won his first France cap in September 2016, and Mbappé his on 25 March 2017, coming on after 78 minutes of a World Cup qualifier in Luxembourg that Dembélé started and finished. Eighteen days later they were on opposite sides of a Champions League quarter-final, Dembélé's Dortmund against Mbappé's Monaco. Mbappé scored three times in the tie, Dembélé scored once and set up another, and Monaco went through 6–3. On 25 August 2017 Barcelona announced a deal for Dembélé; six days later Mbappé joined PSG on loan with an option to buy. Barcelona's president then, Josep Maria Bartomeu, said in May 2026 that the club had asked about both, that its coaches wanted Dembélé and that he thought Mbappé preferred PSG.
They were PSG team-mates for one season, 2023–24, and won Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and the Trophée des Champions together; in Mbappé's last game for the club, the 2024 cup final against Lyon, Dembélé headed the opener. Mbappé joined Real Madrid as a free agent that summer. In the next two seasons PSG won the Champions League twice and Dembélé won the 2025 Ballon d'Or, then FIFA's The Best award, where Lamine Yamal was second and Mbappé third. Mbappé won the 2024–25 European Golden Shoe and, at the 2026 World Cup, became France's record scorer.
Every number · last season
| DembéléOusmane Dembélé | Stat | MbappéKylian Mbappé |
|---|---|---|
2,846 | Minutes | 4,674 |
49 | Matches | 56 |
63.73Important · 40 club games · as of 2026-10-12 | Current squad importance | 77.42Star · 40 club games · as of 2026-10-12 |
0.8226 in total | goals per 90 | 1.1057 in total |
0.4113 in total | assists per 90 | 0.2513 in total |
2.993 in total | chances created per 90 | 2.5128 in total |
3.094 in total | shots per 90 | 4.1215 in total |
2.579 in total | take-ons tried per 90 | 4.9257 in total |
0.414 in total | tackles per 90 | 0.29 in total |
0.14 in total | interceptions per 90 | 0.15 in total |
2.477 in total | duels won per 90 | 3.8199 in total |
83% | pass completion | 86% |
Goals and assists are counted from match events; the other counts come from the provider's detailed match stats. Squad importance describes the current club role over its recent club-game window; it is independent of the comparison window.
Have they played each other?
Up to September 2026 they had been on opposite sides five times in competitive matches, all in knockout ties, and Mbappé's team had won three of those games, drawn one and lost one. The latest was PSG's 4–0 win over Real Madrid in the Club World Cup semi-final on 9 July 2025, in which Dembélé set up the first goal and scored the second before going off after 59 minutes, while Mbappé played the whole game. Mbappé's seven goals in their meetings all came earlier: three for Monaco against Dortmund in 2017 and four for PSG against Barcelona in 2021, three of them in a 4–1 win at Camp Nou. That semi-final was the only time they had met since Mbappé left Paris, and PSG and Real Madrid were not drawn together in the 2026–27 Champions League league phase. Up to 25 September 2026 they had been team-mates in 41 PSG games, all in 2023–24, and 60 France games. When this page was last reviewed, the team-mates list below held all of the PSG season but not every France game: it lists competitive games only, so it leaves out their friendlies, and of their competitive France games before the 2022–23 Nations League it holds only two qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, against Ukraine and Kazakhstan in March 2021. The others, among them the 2018 World Cup, are missing.
Looking up their matches…
What the numbers don't show
Where they line up has shifted over the years. At the 2022 World Cup they were France's two wide forwards in all six games they started together, Mbappé on the left and Dembélé on the right. At PSG in 2023–24, ESPN's line-ups have Dembélé on the right in 27 of the 31 games they both started. Mbappé began that season mostly on the left or in a front two; of his 21 starts in their games together from December 2023 on, ESPN listed him as the lone centre-forward in 13. At the 2026 World Cup Mbappé started all eight of France's games through the middle, with Dembélé usually to his right.
Over their years as team-mates, most of the supply has run from Dembélé to Mbappé. In their games together up to September 2026, ESPN's match commentary credits Dembélé with the final pass for 63 of Mbappé's shots, nine of which were goals, and Mbappé with the final pass for 34 of Dembélé's, five of them goals. At the 2026 World Cup it ran both ways: Dembélé set up two of Mbappé's goals and Mbappé three of Dembélé's. After the quarter-final, FIFA called them the first pair from one national team to score at least five goals each at a World Cup since Ronaldo and Rivaldo for Brazil in 2002.
FIFA's data from that tournament also shows how the work was split. Over France's eight games it logged Mbappé making a run or signal for the ball in behind the defence 191 times to Dembélé's 68, more than twice as often per minute played. Dembélé received more passes in the space between the opponents' midfield and defence, 176 to Mbappé's 165, and sent in 36 crosses to Mbappé's 10.
Estimated value
Kylian Mbappé's Oddsivio estimated value is higher: €183m (#4 of 9,335 players valued) to Ousmane Dembélé's €111m (#15 of 9,335 players valued). Dembélé's estimate rose 37% since season start; Mbappé's estimate held steady since season start.Oddsivio estimated value — a model estimate from recent performance data, not betting advice.
Ousmane Dembélé
Oddsivio estimated value
€111m
+37% since season start
#15 of 9,335 players valued#2 of 426 in Ligue 1
Kylian Mbappé
Oddsivio estimated value
€183m
+1% since season start
#4 of 9,335 players valued#2 of 506 in La Liga
Questions fans ask
Did Dembélé and Mbappé play together at PSG?
Yes, for one season. Dembélé joined PSG from Barcelona on 12 August 2023, and a week later both came on as substitutes in his debut, a 1–1 draw at Toulouse in which Mbappé scored a penalty. Both played in 41 of PSG's 53 competitive games that season, and the club went out of the Champions League to Dortmund in the semi-finals. ESPN's match data has Dembélé setting up four of Mbappé's goals and Mbappé one of Dembélé's. Mbappé announced in May 2024 that he would leave at the end of the season.
Are Dembélé and Mbappé friends?
They have spoken warmly about each other for years. Before the 2018 World Cup, at a France press conference, Dembélé called Mbappé a friend he played the FIFA video game with; told that Mbappé had called him the best young player in the world, he laughed that Mbappé was exaggerating and handed the compliment back. In June 2025, at another France press conference, Mbappé said that if he had a Ballon d'Or vote it would go to Dembélé, and in September, when Dembélé won, Mbappé congratulated him on Instagram. In a France Football interview in September 2026, told that ten years earlier few would have expected Dembélé to win the Ballon d'Or before him, Mbappé said Dembélé had always been seen as a talented player and he himself as the chosen one, and that Dembélé's path had been different, with injuries, but that he had caught up really well. Asked about the Ballon d'Or in a Ligue 1+ TV interview after PSG's win at Brest on 13 September, Dembélé said, without naming Mbappé, that he had never been the chosen one but had worked extremely hard. In an interview L'Équipe published on 21 September, Mbappé said there was no tension and called Dembélé a friend.
What have Dembélé and Mbappé won?
Both were in the France squad that won the 2018 World Cup, though Dembélé did not play in the final. By September 2026 Mbappé's other major honours included the 2021 Nations League, seven Ligue 1 titles (one with Monaco, six with PSG) and, at Real Madrid, the 2024 UEFA Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup; he had won neither the Champions League nor the Ballon d'Or, in which he came third in 2023. Dembélé won the Ballon d'Or in 2025. With PSG he won the Champions League in 2025 and 2026 and Ligue 1 in each of his first three seasons there, 2023–24 to 2025–26; before that he won LaLiga with Barcelona in 2018, 2019 and 2023. By September 2026, Transfermarkt's honours lists came to 22 senior team titles for Dembélé and 20 for Mbappé, counting a title only when the player had played at least once in that competition.
Who is faster, Dembélé or Mbappé?
Up to September 2026, in matches where UEFA tracked both, Mbappé usually recorded the higher top speed: in the 23 games from 2017 in which both played at least 45 minutes and UEFA published tracking data, his was higher in 18. In those games his best was 36.5 km/h, in the EURO 2024 quarter-final against Portugal, and Dembélé's 34.5 km/h, in the semi-final against Spain. It has not always gone that way: across the 2022–23 Champions League, UEFA's fastest reading for Dembélé was 36.6 km/h, a kilometre an hour above Mbappé's. A top speed is a single burst, and it depends on how much space a game offers.
Who is better, Dembélé or Mbappé?
The live comparison above judges them over whichever window you pick; the words here add no verdict of their own. What the numbers leave out is that their jobs have often differed: for France, and at PSG in 2023–24, Mbappé was usually the finisher and Dembélé more often the one supplying him. By 25 September 2026 each had something the other didn't: Dembélé the 2025 Ballon d'Or, and Mbappé France's scoring record, 67 goals in 107 games.
How old and how tall are Dembélé and Mbappé?
Dembélé is the older by about 19 months: Mbappé was born in Paris on 20 December 1998, Dembélé in Vernon, Normandy, on 15 May 1997. PSG list Dembélé at 178 cm and Real Madrid list Mbappé at 1.78 m, so on their clubs' figures they are the same height.