The Kylian Mbappé Golden Boot Race took on new meaning Saturday, when Mbappé’s brace in the third-place match against England made him the outright all-time leading scorer in World Cup history. It capped a three-tournament scoring run that has now put the France captain two goals clear of Lionel Messi on the sport’s biggest individual leaderboard.
Mbappé’s second goal against England came in the 66th minute, a clinical finish after combining with Michael Olise that took his career World Cup tally to 22 goals. The goal moved him past Messi’s career mark of 21, a record that had briefly belonged to the Argentine earlier this tournament after he passed longtime record holder Miroslav Klose. Mbappé’s tally has been built across three tournaments: four goals in France’s title-winning run in 2018, eight more during the 2022 final defeat to Argentina, and now 10 across this year’s competition alone.
Klose held the all-time scoring record for more than a decade after finishing his career with 16 goals across four World Cups for Germany, a mark many assumed would stand for years. Both Messi and Mbappé blew past that total this summer, trading the record back and forth as the tournament progressed. Messi first equaled and then passed Klose in France’s group stage matches in June, before Mbappé’s knockout-round form pulled him back into contention. Saturday’s brace settled the record, at least for now, with one match still to be played.
Beyond the career record, the Mbappé Golden Boot Race for this year’s individual tournament trophy remains unresolved. Mbappé’s brace also pushed his 2026 World Cup tally to 10 goals, two clear of Messi’s eight for the current tournament’s scoring title. Because Argentina still has Sunday’s final to play against Spain, Messi retains a real chance to close that gap, while Mbappé’s involvement in the tournament is already finished after France’s third-place finish. Under FIFA’s tiebreaker rules, goals decide the award first, with assists as the secondary tiebreaker if needed, meaning Messi would need at least two more goals in the final to retake the lead outright.
Mbappé’s brace also carried statistical weight beyond the outright scoring record. It marked his fourth career multi-goal game in a World Cup knockout match, twice as many as any other player in tournament history, and his seventh multi-goal game of this tournament alone, also a new record. France scored at least three goals in five straight World Cup matches during this run. It is the longest such streak in the competition’s history, underlining just how potent Les Bleus’ attack has been across the tournament even in a campaign that ultimately fell short of the final.
What’s your take? Post it in our free sports community at stadiumrant.app, or download Stadium Rant on the App Store.
With his own tournament complete, Mbappé now watches from outside as Messi gets one final chance to reclaim the individual scoring title in Sunday’s final. A win for Messi personally would require a big offensive performance against a Spanish defense that has conceded just once all tournament. It makes Mbappé’s record-setting weekend feel, for now, like the last major individual milestone of this World Cup. For the full breakdown of Mbappé’s record-breaking numbers, ESPN’s complete statistical recap covers his full tournament tracker, while Sky Sports’ Golden Boot update has the latest standings heading into Sunday.
It’s not only a match. It’s a dream for all players to achieve the Golden Boot as well as the World Cup. Mbappe is ready for the Golden Boot.
If you love sports, download Stadium Rant from the Apple App Store and join one of the fastest-growing social sports communities. Be sure to follow us on socials too — you can find all our profiles on our Linktree.
