The guy just won’t go away. Kylian Mbappe has done it again, snatching the Golden Boot right out of Lionel Messi’s hands for the second straight World Cup.
It happened Sunday night in the final against Spain. Messi needed one goal to tie Mbappe. He needed two to win. He got zero. And just like that, Mbappe’s eight goals stood as the tournament high, making him the first player since Gerd Muller in 1970 to crack that number in a single men’s World Cup.
The thing is, Messi had been running laps around history all month. He became the all-time leading World Cup scorer during the group stage, passing Miroslav Klose. He was the first player to score in six straight knockout matches. He hit eight goals himself. That would’ve won the Golden Boot in pretty much any other tournament.
But not this one. Not with Mbappe around.
The French staretched his own record too. His 22 career World Cup goals now top Messi’s 21 in finals history. He also picked up an assist on Bradley Barcola’s goal in the bronze medal match, tying Messi with four assists apiece. That 6-4 thriller against England on Saturday sealed the deal. Mbappe scored twice and set up another, putting him out of reach before Messi even stepped onto the field for the final.
What about the others?
Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane were still mathematically alive heading into the weekend. Neither started the third-place game against France — Thomas Tuchel shuffled the lineup hard — but Bellingham came off the bench and scored his seventh of the tournament. Ousmane Dembele chimed in with his sixth too. So it wasn’t just a two-man race, even if it felt like one.
Still, nobody was catching Mbappe once he hit eight. And the timing is brutal for Messi. He had a chance to put an exclamation point on his World Cup legacy, to hold the Golden Boot and the trophy at the same time. Instead, he walked away with silver and watched his rival walk away with the scoring title.
Mbappe is 27. Messi is 39. The torch has been passed for a while now, but this tournament made it official in a way that even the 2022 final couldn’t. That one ended in a trophy for Messi. This one ends with Mbappe holding the individual hardware and the conversation shifting again.
Two World Cups in a row. Back-to-back Golden Boots. And a generation of forwards trying to figure out how to catch him.
Leave a Comment