Enyeama tips Mbappe for Ballon d’Or after historic hat-trick vs Barcelona

FORMER Super Eagles captain Vincent Enyeama was so impressed by Kylian Mbappe on Tuesday night that he predicted the Frenchman would one day be the best player in the world.

Mbappe scored thrice as Paris Saint-Germain won the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg clash 4-1 against Barcelona at Camp Nou.

One of the best goalkeepers in the world in his playing days, Enyeama played against the best forwards in the world at club and international level.

The 38-year-old is the joint-most capped player in Nigeria history at 101 along with Joseph Yobo, and set a clean sheet record in Ligue 1, the French championship where Mbappe’s Paris Saint-Germain have been dominant for years.

Enyeama is eminently qualified to rate attackers, and Mbappe’s performance in the stunning victory over Barcelona at Camp Nou got the Nigerian waxing lyrical.

“Mbappe is such a great player, future Ballon d’Or,” Enyeama tweeted.

“Players like him make goal keeping such a beautiful job. A matchday dream.”

Enyeama has indeed had some great battles against world-class attackers, especially Lionel Messi, the Barcelona great who scored his side’s only goal on Tuesday night.

Argentina captain Messi and Enyeama have faced each other several times at international level, twice at the World Cup: 2010 and 2014. 

The 2010 battle was epic, one of the highlights of the World Cup in South Africa as Enyeama repeatedly thwarted Messi. Argentina won 1-0 but it was not Messi who scored the goal. The diminutive genius however scored twice in a 3-2 win for Argentina in 2014, a match in which Enyeama excelled again.

The former Nigeria captain was probably referring to battles like those after watching 22-year-old Mbappe become only the third player to score a UEFA Champions League hat-trick against Barcelona, after Faustino Asprilla for Newcastle and Andriy Shevchenko for Dynamo Kyiv (both in 1997). 

According to Opta statistics, Mbappe is also only the second player in European Cup/Champions League history to score an away brace against Barcelona in the knockout rounds, after Ferenc Puskas for Real Madrid in the 1959-60 semi-final.