Mbappé surpasses Lizarazu and Blanc with his 98th cap against Northern Ireland

Kylian Mbappé reached a new milestone with France on Monday evening at Lille, in the Blues’ final warm-up match before the 2026 World Cup. Against Northern Ireland, the Real Madrid forward brought his tally to 98 caps, claiming sole possession of tenth place in the ranking of most-capped players in the history of the national team.

Mbappé now leads Bixente Lizarazu and Laurent Blanc, who each have 97 caps. Four days earlier, against Côte d’Ivoire at Nantes (2-1 defeat), he had entered this Top 10 tied with the two former internationals.

The next target for “Kyk’s” is Didier Deschamps and his 103 caps. The current France manager could be matched, or even surpassed, as early as the group stage of the World Cup if Mbappé plays all three matches scheduled against Senegal, Iraq and Norway, as well as potential round-of-16 and quarter-final ties.

At the top of this ranking, Hugo Lloris remains untouchable with 145 caps. The former France captain leads Lilian Thuram (142), Antoine Griezmann (137), Olivier Giroud (137), Thierry Henry (123), Marcel Desailly (116), Zinedine Zidane (108) and Patrick Vieira (107). At 26 years old, Mbappé still has many opportunities to climb these rankings.