Mbappé surpasses Pelé and Giroud with historic France record in World Cup opener

Kylian Mbappé rewrote two record books in a single World Cup opener, scoring twice in France’s 3-1 victory over Senegal to surpass both Pelé on the all-time World Cup scoring list and Oliver Giroud as France’s leading international scorer of all time.

The Real Madrid forward’s 13th World Cup goal drew him level with Giroud on 57 international goals before his 14th broke the tie and simultaneously moved him past Pelé’s World Cup tally. Mbappé now sits on 14 World Cup goals — two in the current tournament, eight in 2022 and four in 2018 — placing him joint fourth in history alongside Germany’s Gerd Müller. He trails Brazil’s Ronaldo by one and sits two short of the all-time record of 16, shared by Germany’s Miroslav Klose and Lionel Messi, who has already scored a hat-trick at this tournament.

The 27-year-old will add another milestone when France face Iraq in their second Group I match on Monday: it will be his 100th international appearance. “It’s always a pleasure to be able to play on the national team,” Mbappé said at a press conference inside the Philadelphia Eagles’ stadium. “There’s nothing bigger than the national team. One hundred, that’s historic. All the more when it’s the World Cup.”

Iraq head coach Graham Arnold, asked how his side planned to contain Mbappé, offered a candid assessment of the task. “I asked if we could play three goalkeepers,” Arnold said with a laugh. “But they said no.”

Already a world champion in 2018 and one of only two players to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, Mbappé is playing in his third tournament. Should France advance deep into the competition, he could also overhaul coach Didier Deschamps’ record of 103 caps as a player, and in the longer term has a realistic path to surpassing Hugo Lloris’ national record of 145 appearances.

With potentially two more World Cups ahead of him, the question of whether Mbappé could become the greatest World Cup player in history is already being debated. He was characteristically measured when asked. “It’s debate for the people,” he said in English. “It’s debate for the journalists, debate for the fans of football. For me, it’s not a question in my head. It’s just about how can I help my team tomorrow against Iraq and can I bring the trophy home in July.”

Mbappé acknowledged Messi as the current best player in the game and, when pressed on his long-term future, declined to completely rule out a move to MLS at some point in his career.