France star Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 has done nothing but stack his numbers every time he takes the stage at the World Cup. As he does so, he’s either on the precipice or already matching all-time records at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
So, with Mbapp\u00e9 already approaching some historic marks in the history of the World Cup, is he the best player to ever play in the tournament? Well, FOX Sports’ Peter Crouch thinks Mbapp\u00e9 is well on his way to becoming the World Cup’s GOAT.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Mbapp\u00e9, the numbers are becoming ridiculous. I\u2019m going [to say he’s] potentially the greatest ever World Cup player,” Crouch said of Mbapp\u00e9 after France’s 2-0 win over Morocco. “27 years old, [he has the] most knockout goals, he\u2019s got 20 goals, one behind Messi. He\u2019s potentially playing in three World Cup finals if they get to the final, scored a hat trick in the final that France didn\u2019t win. The numbers are stacking up.”<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 entered the 2026 FIFA World Cup looking to make the final for the third time in as many tournament appearances. While this marks Mbapp\u00e9’s first World Cup captaining France, he’s also set some records along the way. After he scored in Thursday’s win, Mbapp\u00e9 now has 20 goals at the World Cup, which are the second-most ever. He’s also the first player to score eight goals in two separate World Cups.<\/p>\n
As Mbapp\u00e9 continues to add to his World Cup r\u00e9sum\u00e9, FOX Sports’ Stu Holden also thinks the France star is entering a category of his own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“At 19, he was the first teenager to win the World Cup since Pele. He\u2019s different,” Holden added. “He has it all. When I see him playing at this level, he\u2019s playing a different game than others. I know we all love Messi, but I feel like by the time Mbapp\u00e9 is done, he could be the greatest of all time.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
In terms of goals, Lionel Messi is the only player Mbapp\u00e9 is chasing in World Cup history. Messi’s the World Cup’s all-time leading goalscorer with 21. But Messi also has a few other World Cup records to his name, like the most consecutive World Cup matches with a goal (nine) and the most World Cup assists of all-time (nine).\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Messi’s played in twice as many World Cups (six) as Mbapp\u00e9 (three). So, Mbapp\u00e9 certainly has time to catch up to the 39-year-old Messi’s records, if he hasn’t by the end of the 2026 World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And Thursday was another day where Mbapp\u00e9’s tenacity was on full display. Following a scoreless first half, Mbapp\u00e9 scored one of the goals of the tournament in the second half to give his side a 1-0 lead. Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 followed suit shortly after with his fifth goal this tournament in the 66th minute to send France to the semifinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even if it took Mbapp\u00e9 60 minutes to score against a competitive Morocco team, FOX Sports’ Kasper Schmeichel knew that he was not going to let up until he found the net.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s an absolutely phenomenal record. He wasn\u2019t going to be denied today,” Schmeichel said of Mbapp\u00e9’s growing list of World Cup marks. “His goal was exceptional, the skill and the vision. He is absolutely deserving of all the praise he gets, and he is absolutely undeserving of all the criticism he gets.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY France star Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 has done nothing but stack his numbers every time he takes the stage at the World Cup. As he does so, he’s either on the precipice or already matching all-time records at the World Cup. So, with Mbapp\u00e9 already approaching some historic marks in the history of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}