Kylian Mbappé breaks Lionel Messi’s World Cup scoring record with 22nd career goal

Kylian Mbappé scored twice against England in Saturday’s World Cup third-place game to move clear of Lionel Messi in both the Golden Boot race and the World Cup record books. The second-half brace gave the France captain 22 career World Cup goals, the most goals in the tournament all time . Mbappé’s record-breaking goal came after France mounted another attack in the second half, with the forward finding space in the box before clinically finishing for his second of the afternoon. MBAPPÉ BECOMES THE ALL-TIME FIFA WORLD CUP LEADER IN GOALS SCORED 🇫🇷 HE SCORES HIS 22ND GOAL TO TAKE THE LEAD OVER MESSI 🤯 pic.twitter.com/MV8YP7VM95 — FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 18, 2026 Trailing 4-0 at halftime, France needed only three minutes after the break to respond. Dayot Upamecano threaded a pinpoint pass into the box, where Mbappé calmly tucked his shot into the bottom-right corner in the 48th minute. Mbappé scores his 9th goal of the 2026 FIFA World Cup to put him on top of The Great Golden Boot Race 🇫🇷 He is now level with Messi in all-time FIFA World Cup goals with 21! pic.twitter.com/M0KRzEIjYq — FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 18, 2026 Mbappé now has 10 goals in the tournament and 22 all-time in the World Cup. He scored four times in 2018 in helping France win and eight times in 2022 when they finished as runners-up to Argentina. This World Cup, Mbappé has scored in six of France's eight matches and recorded at least one goal contribution (goal or assist) in seven games. Entering the 2026 World Cup, Miroslav Klose held the all-time tournament goals record with 16. The Germany striker played in four World Cups and scored four times in at least three of them. Messi moved ahead of Klose during the group stage with a pair of goals — his 16th and 17th all-time in the World Cup — during Argentina's 2-0 win over Austria. Mbappé broke a tie with Klose when he scored his 17th goal in a 3-0 win over Sweden in the Round of 32. Messi will get his chance to reclaim his spot atop the all-time list when Argentina takes on Spain in the other World Cup final on Sunday.