The brace against Iraq came nearly three hours apart, either side of a weather delay that emptied Philadelphia of its noise for the best part of two hours. Kylian Mbappé came back out and scored again anyway.
It took him level with Miroslav Klose’s all-time World Cup scoring record at 16, on his 100th cap for France, in the same match he became his country’s outright top scorer. One goal behind Messi in the Golden Boot race.
Some players mark milestones quietly. Mbappé tends to make a show and dance of it. He wouldn’t be a Galactico without it.
There is a strong case, built on World Cup evidence alone, that Mbappé has become the defining player of this competition.
France have a really strong squad again and are one of the favourites of betting sites to win it all in North America. Arizona sportsbook promo codes have Les Blues in for a deep run, with Argentina always on their mind.
Mbappé's World Cup legacy
It is worth remembering exactly what Mbappé produced in Qatar before getting carried away with what comes next.
His hat-trick in the 2022 final remains one of the great individual performances in the history of the tournament, a display so complete that it should have won the game on its own. France still lost on penalties.
That result has shaped the way Mbappé’s World Cup story is told ever since. It was proof of his greatness and a reminder of how cruelly the biggest stage can treat even the best players in the world.
The early signs from this tournament suggest that frustration has not gone anywhere. If anything, it looks like fuel.
Deschamps has the squad depth to provide a stronger supporting cast than at Lusail. Dembélé, Olise and Barcola can all change a game without Mbappé needing to be the difference every time. That has not stopped him being exactly that, though. Twice already.
A shot at it all
It is easy to forget now just how startling Mbappé’s emergence was. He arrived at the 2018 World Cup as a 19-year-old and played with a composure that belied his age, scoring in the final itself as France lifted the trophy in Russia.
Now 27, he’s been one of Deschamps’ central figures ever since, across a Euros final defeat, a World Cup final defeat on penalties, and now a third tournament where the goals continue to come at a rate few players in the history of the sport could match.
The club football years since Qatar have added their own layer to this. A move to Real Madrid that has not always been straightforward, reported friction within the dressing room, and the experience of leaving Paris Saint-Germain only to watch his former club go on and win the Champions League twice without him.
That’s no small thing to carry. Knowing he has missed out domestically at the highest European level, while his former side lifted the trophy he always wanted, only adds another layer of motivation to win something significant on the international stage instead.
The record chase
The symbolism matters as much as the number itself. Mbappé is not simply chasing the goals record for its own sake.
He is chasing the wider narrative of overtaking Messi in the story of this competition, of becoming the player most associated with World Cup history rather than simply one of its great performers.
With two more World Cups realistically still ahead of him after this one, given his age, it feels less a question of whether he eventually stands alone at the top of that list and more a question of when.
The real drama, the part that actually matters this summer, is whether he can break that record while also lifting the trophy his Qatar performance deserved but never received. A record without the trophy would be remarkable. Both together would be something closer to complete.
This is the part of the story that turns a great player into a genuinely historic one. Every element is in place. The chance for revenge against Argentina. The record that increasingly looks like a matter of when, not if. The trophy that has so far eluded him despite producing arguably the greatest individual final performance the World Cup has ever seen.
Mbappé doesn’t really need this tournament to validate his career. The numbers already do that. But should he leave North America as the top scorer, a measure of revenge over Argentina, and the trophy itself, this would not simply be another good World Cup. It would be the moment his story stopped being about brilliant performances in defeat and became something closer to the complete picture. Mr World Cup, with the medal to match the name.