Now Kylian Mbappe has accelerated past Pele. Just Fontaine and Olivier Giroud, too. A record-breaking goal in French history came during a landmark brace in World Cups. More immediately, though, it gave France and Mbappe a winning start. His quest to play in a third World Cup final at just 27 is up and running.
Mbappe’s magnificent double, sandwiching a strike from Bradley Barcola, prevented a repeat of 2002 and rewrote many a record book. Mbappe’s goals were his 57th and 58th goal for his country. He leapfrogged his old partner Giroud, who broke Thierry Henry’s France record at the last World Cup, and knew he was only borrowing it before Mbappe claimed it, presumably to keep for rather longer. Some 14 of them have come in World Cups: Fontaine got 13 in one tournament alone while Pele’s dozen took four. That, too, may be another record Mbappe is destined to hold. Miroslav Klose could lose it in the next few weeks.
