Rio hails Mbappe as heir to the throne

RIO FERDINAND believes Kylian Mbappe is going to “take the crown” as the best player in the world from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Paris Saint-germain striker destroyed Messi (above) and Barcelona at the Nou Camp on Tuesday, scoring a hat-track in a 4-1 Champions League thrashing of the Catalans.

And former England and Manchester United defender Ferdinand believes nothing can stop him now.

“Mbappe is on his own – out of young players he’s on his own,” said Ferdinand (below).

“People forget he’s 22 years old. Given he’s won the World Cup, what he’s done in the French League and in the Champions League, he’s been immense.”

Mbappe was already hot property, with Real Madrid and Manchester City chasing the France international.

But his performance in

Spain completely overshadowed Messi, who gave Barcelona the lead with a penalty.

Mbappe scored three superb goals with Moise Kean, on loan from Everton, adding another and PSG could have had more.

“I just feel he’s the guy now that’s going to take the throne, take the crown, he’s standing alone at the moment,” added BT Sport pundit Ferdinand. “It’s for everybody to catch up to him now.

“This guy is going to take over the throne from Messi and Ronaldo when they’re done with it.”

Ironically, the background to Tuesday’s match centred round PSG making public their desire to sign Messi when his

Barcelona contract runs out at the end of this season.

But afterwards, fans of the French club will be asking if their team need

33-year-old Messi, given Mbappe (above) is in such good form.

They also had the likes of Neymar and Angel Di Maria missing from the last-16 tie.

Neymar, though could land a two-match ban ruling him out of the return leg on March 10 after an outburst on social media during the match in Barcelona.

He missed the game with a groin injury and was angry when his former club were awarded a penalty after Frenkie De Jong tumbled in the area.

The Brazilian tweeted: “This penalty is a joke”, then wrote “s*** goal” as Messi converted the penalty.

He deleted the Tweet but UEFA could still decide to punish him for what he wrote.

The disciplinary code of European football’s governing body outlaws “insults or other conduct that violates the basic rules of conduct”.