Two goals from Kylian Mbappé saw Real Madrid claw their way back from a goal down to beat Marseille in the Champions League on Tuesday, despite having to play with 10 men for the latter stages of the game.
Demonstrating once again why they are the most successful team in European Cup history, Real shook off an early Tim Weah opener and the 72nd-minute dismissal of Dani Carvajal to win 2-1 at the Bernabéu, with Mbappé converting twice from the penalty spot to seal the deal.
The second of the France forward’s spot kicks was his sixth goal in five games for Madrid this season, and was also his 50th since his marquee arrival at the club in July 2024. Despite reaching that milestone in just 64 appearances, Mbappé is not even close to being the quickest player to reach their half-century for the club.
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While a fair distance behind those hot-shots at the top of the tree, the 26-year-old has successfully pipped the likes of Ronaldo Nazário (who took 73 games to reach 50 goals for Madrid), Hugo Sánchez (77) and even two of the club’s top three all-time goal scorers: Karim Benzema (106) and Raúl González (114). Mbappé has also outstripped strike partner Vinícius Júnior by a considerable margin, with the Brazil forward taking 202 games to reach the 50-goal mark.
However, there are still eight players who managed to reach 50 goals for Real in fewer games than Mbappé over the course of the club’s long and vaunted history, with Manuel Alday (57 games), Pahiño (61) and Pruden (62) immediately ahead of him. Here we focus on the five players who were quickest to achieve that considerable feat.
=4. Alfredo Di Stéfano (50 goals in 56 games)
A name synonymous with Real Madrid and in particular their imperious glory years of the 1950s and ’60s, Di Stéfano is still placed fourth among the club’s all-time top goal scorers. He rattled away 308 goals in 396 games in total while winning 17 major titles during his 10-year stint at the Bernabéu. After scoring 27 goals in 28 games in 1953-54 (his debut campaign), Di Stéfano maintained that formidable form and passed the 50-goal mark before the close of the 1954-55 season.
=4. Ferenc Puskás (56 games)
After joining Madrid at the age of 31, Puskas scored no fewer than four hat tricks in his debut season in La Liga (1958-59), playing alongside Di Stéfano in Los Blancos‘ all-conquering side. After pitching in with a relatively meagre 25 goals in his maiden campaign, the Galloping Major upped the ante the following season when he powered through 47 goals in 36 games. He passed his half-century along the way to winning his second European Cup in as many years, scoring four goals in the epic 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the final.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (54 games)
A modern-day colossus in goal-scoring terms, Cristiano Ronaldo certainly hit the ground running following his world record transfer from Manchester United. The Portugal star began the 2009-10 season with five goals in his first four appearances and ended up with 33 goals in 35 games for Los Blancos, despite failing to win a trophy. Ronaldo’s 50th goal came the following November when a hat trick in a 5-1 trouncing of Athletic Club (his third treble for Madrid) saw him end the evening with an impressive stockpile of 51 goals in 54 games for the Spanish side.
2. Gaspar Rubio (49 games)
Even Ronaldo’s prolific strike rate pales once compared with the two players at the top of the order, both of whom hit their first 50 goals for Madrid in fewer than 50 games. Unusually, Rubio’s half-century of goals was actually amassed over the space of two separate stints at Los Blancos, with the Spanish striker scoring 30 goals in two seasons for the club between 1928 and 1930 and then a further flurry during a second spell in the late 1930s and early ’40s.
1. Fernando Sañudo (47 games)
With an impressive strike rate of a goal every 0.94 games, Sanudo hit 50 goals in lightning time for Real Madrid between 1934 and 1936 and then — like so many other footballers of the period — had his career halted by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. As well as his prolific output, Sañudo will forever go down in Real folklore as being the man who scored four goals in their biggest-ever win over rivals Barcelona: an 8-2 demolition job of a Clásico at the Bernabéu in February 1935.
