Kylian Mbappé not thinking about World Cup Golden Boot race with Lionel Messi
Mbappé won the Golden Boot in 2022 when he scored eight goals in seven games — including a hat trick in the final — and finished joint-second in the scoring charts in 2018, two goals behind Harry Kane.
His brace on Monday took him to 16 World Cup goals in total, drawing him level with Miroslav Klose in joint-second overall. The feat would have seen him tie Klose and Messi in first place, had Messi not also scored both goals in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Austria earlier on Monday to take the overall record outright.
“I said it yesterday: Léo always scores,” Mbappé continued. “He’s always scored and he’s scoring. He’ll always score. If I want to look at what Léo’s doing, I’ll have to do even more.
“So no, no, I don’t look at what he’s doing at all. I’m focused on helping my team. I’m sure I’m part of my team. I score goals and when you score goals, of course, you get closer to that sort of level.
“But as I said, we’ve got a long road ahead of us that’s going to be tough, and we’re going to do everything we can to come out on top at the end of this perilous journey.”
