What World Cup records has Mbappe broken?

Robin Bairner

• 19 Dec 2022 02:33 CST
• 4 min read

It was not to be at the 2022 World Cup for Kylian Mbappe, but although it ultimately ended in team disappointment for the PSG striker as his France side were defeated in the final on penalties by Argentina, it was a competition that marked numerous milestones for the 23-year-old.

If 2018 was Mbappe’s breakout competition in which his star status was confirmed, Qatar 2022 was the tournament in which he accepted the mantel of being the game’s next great talent.

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Ultimately, Argentina’s victory means the competition will be remembered as Lionel Messi’s but it also marked the passing of the baton for the game’s greatest player to the Frenchman.

Mbappe, after all, sent a string of landmarks tumbling with his display at the World Cup.

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Mbappe's World Cup record

Perhaps most notably, even if it was ultimately futile, he wrote his name into the history books by becoming just the second player to score a hat-trick in a final. The only previous player to do so was England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966.

Mbappe is the youngest player to score a treble in the showpiece event.

In 2018, he became just the second teenager to score a goal in the World Cup final, replicating the achievement of Pele in 1958. Indeed, Mbappe boasts exactly the same World Cup finals scoring record as the Brazilian great, with 12 goals in 16 games.

At Russia 2018, he was just the third teenager to win the FIFA Young Player Award, following in the footsteps of Pele (17) and Michael Owen (18), who were both younger than him when they won it.

He is the youngest player to score 10 World Cup goals. Indeed, with 12 strikes to his credit, he is joint sixth on the all-time scoring charts at World Cup finals and stands a strong chance of beating Miroslav Klose of Germany during a career that could potentially see him take part at three more competitions.

Mbappe is coming off the back of an individual haul of eight goals, which won the Golden Boot. The last player to strike eight times in a single competition was Ronaldo in 2002. Meanwhile, 1970 was the last time any player managed more than this tally, with Gerd Muller notching on 10 occasions for West Germany in Mexico.

At World Cup 2026, Mbappe, who will be 27 by that stage, will be eyeing more landmarks.