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Do you remember the coronation that never happened?
A few years ago, Kylian Mbappé was the heir to the consensus. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo would eventually depart, and the boy from Bondy (a World Cup winner as a teenager, the first teenager to score in a final since Pele) would inherit the throne. In 2022, he almost took it by force: a Golden Boot, a hat trick in the final, one of the great individual World Cups ever played. Argentina lifted the trophy anyway and the narrative moved forward without him.
Four years later, it’s time to take a step back.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Mbappé, at 27 years old, is the best player in the world at the moment, and he is defending the 2026 World Cup game by game. Seven goals in five games: doubles against Senegal and Iraq, another against Sweden and the winner from the penalty spot in a street fight with Paraguay. Along the way he became France’s all-time leading scorer, surpassing Ronaldo and Miroslav Klose on the World Cup scoring charts and now has 19 tournament goals, one behind Messi’s all-time record.
No one in history has scored more goals in World Cup qualifiers. Nobody has scored more goals in the World Cup. He leads a France team that looks like the most complete team in the tournament, and he hasn’t even needed to be great every night for Les Bleus to win all five.
Yes, Messi is having a magical farewell and Erling Haaland is dragging Norway to places Norway has never been. But Messi is 39 years old and playing his last dance. Ronaldo has just come out of his last World Cup in the round of 16. And Haaland, despite his cruelty, is a specialist: the biggest living predator of the penalty box, and proudly nothing more.
Mbappé is the complete package. World-class pace that still breaks defensive lines in a deadly sprint. The technical ability to beat a man from any side. He can live on the left wing or in the middle. And he is a clinical finisher from start to finish. Strikers usually receive one or two of these gifts. Received the complete package.
So why did some stop saying it? Blame it on the noise in Madrid. Real Madrid’s season was a soap opera: no trophies, a coach under siege and Mbappé chosen as one of the villains, booed inside his own stadium in May. Lost in the drama: the Pichichi won again. Their numbers never went down, but love did.
(Photo by Sven Hoppe/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Now he has found it and it shows. Look at him this summer: laughing during hydration breaks, running to hug Didier Deschamps after scoring against Sweden days after the coach buried his mother, playing with the joy of a man who was told he was the problem and is now, indisputably, the solution. The smile is back. So is the terror it inspires.
Thursday brings Morocco in Boston, a rematch of the 2022 semi-final, and perhaps Messi waiting at the end: the ghost of Lusail, four years later, in New York. You couldn’t write a better script.
And here’s the kicker: despite everything he’s done, Mbappé has never won a Ballon d’Or. Win this World Cup like the star of the show (the record within reach, the Golden Boot at stake, the best team on the field) and that conversation is over in about four seconds.
In 2022 he did everything except lift the trophy. In 2026, I could do it all, period. The throne has been empty for a long time.
