🗣️ Best World Cup goalscorer ever, Mbappé on his duel with Messi

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19 July 2026

It was a completely crazy third-place match that

France

still could not win (4:6 against England). Even

Kylian Mbappé

was unable to prevent the defeat with his goals.

Even so, with 21 goals he moved past

Lionel Messi

and currently leads the all-time

FIFA

World Cup

scoring chart. Tonight, however, 'La Pulga' could move back ahead if he scores three goals in the final against Spain (9 p.m.).

Mbappé is certain that Messi will overtake him again. "I would rather not be the top scorer and play in the final tomorrow. I don't care about being top scorer. Messi will score tomorrow. He always does," said Mbappé directly after the third-place match. He also said he hopes his rival has a great game, because he has earned it.

With his two goals, Mbappé also wrote himself into the

history books twice. In addition to his 21 goals, he is only the fourth

player to score ten or more goals in a single tournament.

–

Saturday, 18 July 2026

The last time a player managed that was 56 years ago. Back then, a certain Gerd Müller also scored ten goals at the 1970

Despite these achievements, it was not enough for Mbappé and

to finish third. From the French perspective, it was also their weakest

showing since Mbappé made his debut in 2017.

What bothered him most was that he and his teammates could not give their coach a farewell gift. They had wanted to win the match. "But unfortunately, in the first half it felt like we had let him down. We wanted to thank him for everything he has done, but this game will not damage Didier Deschamps' legacy," Mbappé said after the final whistle.

Especially with a view to the first half, he said he could understand if people said the players "had not respected the shirt." He added: "I would rather say that we were human. Unfortunately, we were completely off our game. They gave us a real wake-up call. In the second half, we became top players again – mental machines that no longer allow any emotions. We managed to play our game. We won that second half, but in the end we didn't win the match."

With that lesson learned, the French are likely to make another push in four years. According to media reports, Zinédine Zidane is expected to be on the touchline by then.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence.

You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 ROBERTO SCHMIDT - AFP or licensors

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