“Mbappé has played 100 games for the national team with numbers superior to Messi and Ronaldo.”

Kylian Mbappé has just reached a historic milestone by completing 100 international appearances for the French national team – and his numbers leave no room for doubt: he is standing shoulder to shoulder with the greatest names in the history of world football. In the match that marked this impressive achievement, Mbappé scored twice against Iraq, raising his tally to an impressive 60 goals and 40 assists for ‘Les Bleus’.

At 25 years old, the French forward stands out not only for his absolute numbers but also for the speed at which he achieves them. With 16 goals in World Cup finals – including the Golden Boot he won in 2022 and already four goals in the current tournament – Mbappé is rewriting the history of the French national team and positioning himself as one of the most prolific international scorers of all time. To grasp the magnitude of this achievement, it is enough to recall that Lionel Messi, the Argentine genius, marked his hundredth game for Argentina in June 2015, in a narrow 1-0 victory over Jamaica in the Copa América. At that time, Messi was already a superstar, but he was still tasting the bitter flavor of defeat in finals – he would lose another that summer, against Chile, in a cycle of frustrations that would only end six years later with the conquest of the Copa América.


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Cristiano Ronaldo, the all-time top scorer for the Portuguese national team and in men’s international football, reached his hundredth cap in a 1-1 draw against Northern Ireland during World Cup qualification. At that time, his numbers were far from what he would achieve in the following decade. The major surprise lies in the contrast between Mbappé’s explosive start and the more gradual ascent of Ronaldo and Messi: the Frenchman is breaking records with absolutely staggering precocity.

The importance of this news goes beyond the numbers. Mbappé is not only establishing himself as the natural successor to Messi and Ronaldo in the battle for the throne of world football, but also reignites the discussion about who will be the next great dominator of the sport in the coming years. In an era where the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo seems almost unattainable, the young Frenchman shows that he is ready to accept the challenge.

In 2023, Mbappé confessed his admiration for the two football legends: “I love Cristiano and I was a big fan of him when I was young, but I started to learn to appreciate Messi too because, when you are a big fan of Cristiano as a kid, you can’t understand how good Messi is because you only have eyes for Cristiano,” said the French forward. He added: “But I grew up and now I like both. Whenever I step onto the pitch, I tell myself that I am the best. I have played in stadiums where Messi and Cristiano were. They are better players than I am, they have done a thousand times more than I have. But in my mind, I always tell myself that I am the best because that way I don’t set limits on myself and I always try to give my best.”

These statements, made by Mbappé in an interview last year, reveal not only humility in the face of his idols’ achievements but also a fierce competitive mentality and limitless ambition. The French forward is aware of the path he still has to travel to reach the heights of Messi and Ronaldo, but he refuses to be held hostage by the past, focusing instead on surpassing his own limits game after game.

The next step will be crucial: to maintain this scoring rhythm and continue to be decisive in the knockout stages of major tournaments, something both Messi and Ronaldo have done throughout their careers. With the French national team among the favorites for the title in the ongoing tournament and Mbappé in outstanding form, expectations are extremely high. If he keeps up this pace, the Frenchman could even challenge the longevity records of his idols and establish himself as the new face of world football. There is no doubt: Kylian Mbappé is writing his name in history and promises not to stop here.

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