Kylian Mbappe Makes World Cup History With Second Golden Boot

France captain Kylian Mbappe became the first player to win multiple FIFA World Cup Golden Boot awards after Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in Sunday’s final in East Rutherford.

Mbappe scored 10 goals and provided three assists in six matches during the World Cup.

The Real Madrid forward was behind Lionel Messi in the scoring race before scoring twice in France’s 6-4 loss to England in Saturday’s third-place match.

Messi was the only remaining player who could challenge Mbappe for the Golden Boot. The Argentina captain was seeking his first Golden Boot while also trying to help his country win a second consecutive World Cup.

Argentina had previously defeated Mbappe and France on penalty kicks in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.

However, Argentina struggled to create chances against Spain’s strong defense in the final. The defending champions recorded only two shots in the match, with both attempts coming late in the game.

Messi failed to score for the third consecutive match. He had scored eight goals across Argentina’s three group-stage matches, the round of 32 and the round of 16.

At the age of 27, Mbappe can already be described as the greatest goal scorer in World Cup history.

His two second-half goals against England increased his career World Cup total to 22 goals in 22 matches, moving him ahead of Messi as the tournament’s all-time leading scorer.

Messi had earlier broken Miroslav Klose’s all-time World Cup scoring record during the tournament, before Mbappe later surpassed him.

The 39-year-old Messi finished with 21 World Cup goals and may have played the final World Cup match of his career.

Mbappe scored 10 goals during this World Cup. Eight of those goals came through four two-goal performances against Iraq, Senegal, Sweden and England.

With his 10-goal tournament, Mbappe became the first player since Germany’s Gerd Müller in 1970 to score at least 10 goals in a single World Cup.