Kylian Mbappe… France’s all-time top scorer after disturbing nightmares

Kylian Mbappe, the star of the Spanish Real Madrid team and the French national team, did not miss the opportunity, leaving a distinctive and historic mark in his first appearance in the 2026 FIFA World Cup currently being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

After two disappointing seasons with the Madrid team, Mbappe, captain of the French national team, began his campaign in the 2026 World Cup by scoring a brace in a 3-1 win over Senegal in the opening of the ninth group competitions, which also includes the teams of Norway and Iraq.

With this double, Mbappe claimed the throne of his country’s national team’s all-time top scorer after raising his tally to 58 goals, surpassing his former colleague Olivier Giroud, the French Lille striker, who scored 57 goals before retiring from international football last year in 2025.

Quickly after the meeting, Giroud congratulated his former colleague Mbappe, saying on the BBC: “Congratulations Kylian, you did it. I am very happy for him, he deserves this position.”

As for Mbappe, he wrote through his official account on the X platform: “It is always important to start with a victory. We have a long way to go, but we are ready.”

The Real Madrid star also said in his statements after the match: “I do not play out of revenge, and if I focused on criticism or trying to silence all critics, I might have to continue on the field until I reach 80 years old. Rather, I focus only on doing my utmost for my country.”

Kylian Mbappe’s messages after the victory over Senegal also summarize his long and arduous journey during which he went through difficult stages and bumps until he reached the throne of the all-time top scorer, surpassing other stars and legends such as Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane, Michel Platini and others.

Mbappe experienced many crises in his movements between different clubs. After his brilliance with Monaco and winning the league title in 2017 when he was a young player at the time, 18 years old, principality club officials accused him of rebellion in order to pressure him to complete his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of the same year.

Indeed, Mbappe moved to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2017 and spent 7 years among its ranks, during which he achieved all the local titles, won all the individual awards in France, received astronomical salaries, and increased his influence compared to the stars Neymar Jr. and Lionel Messi.

But while he was inside the ivory tower in the Parc des Princes castle, the stronghold of the Parisian club, Kylian did not achieve his greatest dream of winning the Champions League title, but he achieved another dream by moving to Real Madrid, which he has loved since childhood, with a free transfer deal, which caused a legal war between him and the Parisian club over the last two years.

Mbappe was not happy with his move to Real Madrid, the 14-time European champion. Rather, the team failed to have him in his presence, and lost its prestige locally in light of Barcelona’s superiority, and also on the continent in light of Paris Saint-Germain winning the Champions League title in 2025 and 2026, so the French star lived under intense pressure, and it began to be hinted that his coming to Real Madrid was not a good omen.

Mbappe (27 years old) was not only suffering at the club level, but he also experienced many crises with the French national team after a dreamy start by winning the 2018 World Cup title in Russia, where he scored four goals.

Three years after this achievement, Mbappe missed a penalty kick, causing a shocking loss to Switzerland on penalty kicks in Euro 2021, leaving the Roosters in the round of 16 after the world champions were the closest favorites to win the continental title.

After this failure, Mbappe revealed that he thought about retiring from international football with France because of his exposure to racist abuse, but he overcame this violent setback by contributing to France winning the European Nations League title with a 2-1 victory over Spain in the final match that was held in October.

But Mbappe lived a new nightmare more than a year later when the French team lost to Argentina on penalties in the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after an exciting match that ended in a 3-3 draw, and the French star said about it: “I cannot forget this night,” which witnessed him scoring three goals for his country and winning the Golden Shoe award for the tournament’s top scorer with 8 goals.

With his prominent impact with the French national team, Mbappe became the first star in the ranks of the Roosters, surpassing the importance of other mainstays such as Paul Pogba, whose luster was extinguished due to the doping case that kept him out of the stadiums for nearly two years, as well as Antoine Griezmann, Raphael Varane and Olivier Giroud.

In early 2023, France’s coach, Didier Deschamps, decided to give the Rooster’s captaincy to Mbappe, even though he was younger than his teammates, after former Real Madrid and Manchester United defender Raphael Varane and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris retired at the end of the last edition of the World Cup.

But Mbappe did not pay attention to the uproar surrounding this decision, but rather continued his brilliance and brilliance, imposing himself as an indispensable mainstay, and overcoming other crises, such as his departure from the French national team in late 2024, a few months after joining Real Madrid, to be more ready with his Spanish team.

Mbappe also withstood his accusation of sexually assaulting a girl while on a quick vacation in Sweden, and overcame other obstacles such as the uproar raised by Mathias Pogba, who claimed that his brother Paul Pogba had resorted to witches to harm some of his teammates in the national team, including Mbappe.

A few months before the 2026 World Cup, Mbappé caused a stir in the media in Spain and France due to a misdiagnosis of a knee injury, which kept him out of the field more than once this season.

But the Rooster captain put all these crises behind him, and overcame the nightmares, to ascend the throne of the all-time top scorer in his third consecutive appearance in the World Cup, which he also came close to ascending to the historic throne, as he scored 14 goals, equal to the German Gerd Muller.

The Roosters captain is only two goals away from the all-time top scorer held by German Miroslav Klose, after he became his country’s all-time top scorer in the World Cup by surpassing the record of the legend Just Fontaine, who scored 13 goals.