Kylian Mbappé became the all-time top scorer in World Cup history after netting twice in the FIFA World Cup 2026 third-place match.
The French star’s brace also produced a bitter statistic for us Brazilians.
For the second consecutive World Cup, Mbappé managed, on his own, to score the same number of goals as the entire Brazil team combined.
Qatar 2022: 8 goals for Mbappé versus 8 goals for the entire Brazil national team.
USA/Canada/Mexico 2026: 10 goals for Mbappé versus 10 goals for the entire Brazil national team.
While Mbappé reached the 10-goal mark during France’s run to fourth place, Brazil, coached by Carlo Ancelotti, built its total across five matches before being eliminated in the round of 16:
Group Stage: Draw with Morocco (1-1), win over Haiti (3-0), and win over Scotland (3-0).
Knockout stage: Win over Japan (2-1) and the fateful round-of-16 defeat to Norway (1-2).
With this edition’s numbers, Mbappé reached the impressive mark of 22 goals in his three World Cup appearances (4 in 2018, 8 in 2022, and 10 in 2026).
Brazil had not seen its team scoring tally matched or surpassed by a single player since the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
On that occasion, the Seleção scored a mere four goals in the entire tournament, a number individually reached by players such as Roger Milla, Gary Lineker, Míchel, and Lothar Matthäus, and surpassed by that World Cup’s top scorer, Italy’s Salvatore Schillaci (6 goals).
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.
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