Kylian Mbappé He once again expanded his legend in the World Cup. With his double against Sweden In the round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup, the French striker reached 10 goals in direct elimination matches and extended the historical record in that instance.
France beat Sweden 3-0 and advanced to the round of 16, with two goals from Mbappé and another from Bradley Barcola. The French captain was once again decisive in a knockout phase and confirmed his historic weight in the highest-pressure matches.
With these two goals, Mbappé clearly surpassed the eight goals that Brazilians Leônidas da Silva and Ronaldo Nazário had in World Cup qualifying rounds. Behind them appear Pelé, Vavá, Just Fontaine and Oldřich Nejedlý, with seven goals.
The Frenchman had already scored eight goals in the knockout stages before the 2026 World Cup: three in Russia 2018 and five in Qatar 2022. In Russia he scored twice against Argentina in the round of 16 and once more in the final against Croatia. In Qatar he scored two against Poland in the round of 16 and three against Argentina in the final.
The double against Sweden also raised his total tally in World Cups to 18 goals, taking into account his performances in Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 and the 2026 World Cup. With that number, Mbappé was one goal away from equaling Lionel Messi, the competition’s all-time top scorer with 19 goals.
In the 2026 World Cup, Mbappé already has six goals: two against Senegal, two against Iraq and two against Sweden. With that figure he equaled Messi in the lead in the tournament’s scoring table and entered fully into the fight for the Golden Boot.
The first goal against Sweden came with an individual play inside the area, in which he cut back several times until he found the space to finish. After scoring, he ran to the bench to hug Didier Deschamps, who recently lost his mother and returned to the French camp to coach the match.
With his double, Mbappé not only propelled France to the next round, but he once again demonstrated that his relationship with the decisive phases of the World Cups is already part of football history.