Kylian Mbappe Vs Lionel Messi World Cup Goals: The Battle For The All-Time Scoring Crown
Messi scored twice against Austria and pulled clear of Miroslav Klose as the outright leading scorer in World Cup history. Hours later, Mbappe answered with two of his own to draw level with Klose. The gap between them is now two goals.
Monday turned into one of the defining days in World Cup scoring history. Lionel Messi scored twice in Argentina's 2-0 win over Austria, taking his career tally to 18 goals and becoming the outright leading men's scorer in World Cup history, surpassing Germany's Miroslav Klose, who had held the record at 16 since 2014. Hours later, Kylian Mbappe responded with a brace of his own in France's 3-0 win over Iraq, climbing to 16 goals and drawing level with Klose for second place on the all-time list.
The two men, former PSG teammates, are now the only two names left in genuine contention for a record that had stood untouched for 12 years before this tournament began.
Lionel Messi World Cup Goals: How He Reached 18
Messi's run to the record has been built steadily across six tournaments since his debut in 2006. He had 13 goals heading into the 2026 World Cup, scored a hat-trick against Algeria in the opener to reach 16 and draw level with Klose, then added two more against Austria to move clear at 18. He became the second man, after Cristiano Ronaldo, to score at five different World Cups, and at 38 years and 357 days, he is also now the oldest player to ever score a World Cup hat-trick. Of his 18 career goals, nine have come on goals he also created the chance for, and Argentina have never lost a World Cup match in which Messi has scored, aside from the infamous defeat to Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Kylian Mbappe World Cup Goals: Closing the Gap on Messi
Mbappe's pursuit has been faster in real terms. His 16 goals have arrived across just three World Cup appearances, a pace that outstrips every other player in the conversation. He scored 14 goals through his first two tournaments alone, matching Brazil's Ronaldo Nazario as the only players to reach that mark by their second World Cup. Two of his last three goals have come from outside the penalty area, a shift from a career that had been built almost entirely on close-range finishing.
With both players still active in the tournament and France and Argentina both into the knockout rounds, the record set today may not last the summer. Mbappe needs three more goals to overtake Messi. Whether he gets the matches to do it depends on how far France go from here.