Kylian Mbappé walked onto the field at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Monday night and officially joined one of the most exclusive clubs in French soccer. He earned his 100th cap for Les Bleus, starting against Iraq in a 2026 World Cup group stage match. He’s 27 years old. That’s not a typo.
The France captain had already made history earlier in the tournament last week against Senegal, when he scored his 57th and 58th international goals — overtaking Olivier Giroud to become the all-time leading scorer for France. That record used to belong to Thierry Henry (51), then Giroud. Now it’s Mbappé’s and it might stay that way for a while.
The Fast Track From Monaco to the World Stage
Mbappé never played a minute for France’s U21 team. Didier Deschamps threw him straight into the senior squad in March 2017, when Mbappé was still 18. The kid from Bondy hadn’t even finished growing into his frame yet. But Deschamps saw something, obviously.
Since then Mbappé has won a World Cup (2018), scored in that final against Croatia, bagged a Nations League title (2021) with another goal in the final, and dragged France to another World Cup final in 2022 where he scored a hat trick in a losing effort against Argentina. He’s done all this while being the most scrutinized player on the planet, the guy every defender tries to hack down, the guy whose transfer rumors break the internet every summer.
Where He Sits Among France’s All-Time Greats
Now he’s the 10th French player ever to reach 100 caps. The list ahead of him includes current national team boss Deschamps (103 caps), Patrick Vieira (107), soon-to-be France manager Zinedine Zidane (108), Marcel Desailly (116), Henry (123), Antoine Griezmann (137), Giroud (137), Lilian Thuram (142), and Hugo Lloris (145). Mbappé can realistically chase down all of them. He’s 27. If France keeps qualifying for tournaments and he stays healthy — which is never a given, soccer is brutal — he could end up with 160 or 170 caps. The record is sitting right there.
Fans online have joked that Mbappé might try to play until he’s 80 just to prove his critics wrong. That’s probably not medically advisable. But given his track record of turning nonsense into motivation, nobody’s ruling it out entirely.
As for tonight, France just needs a result against Iraq to lock up advancement to the knockout rounds. Mbappé leading the line means the Iraq defense is going to have a very long night. And somewhere in the stands in Philadelphia, a kid wearing a France shirt is about to watch number 100 happen in person.
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