Mbappé says Messi is better than Haaland and Kane, like Cristiano

Kylian Mbappé used the eve of France’s match against Iraq in Philadelphia to make a larger point about modern greatness. Asked to compare the four players who scored more than two goals in the first phase of the World Cup, Mbappé said Lionel Messi stood above Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and even himself, while stressing that Messi shared that place with Cristiano Ronaldo.

The timing mattered. The France-Iraq match became Mbappé’s 100th appearance for the national team, a milestone that added weight to a response that was less about ranking and more about respect across eras. Mbappé framed Messi as “the best in the world,” “just like Cristiano,” and pointed to the two icons as the standard-bearers of elite football for 16 years.

His remarks also tied directly into the tournament’s history books. Messi had reached 16 World Cup goals by scoring a hat trick against Algeria and drawing level with Miroslav Klose, while Mbappé had moved to 14 after his double against Senegal. That scoring chase placed Mbappé inside the same conversation as the men he was praising, but not in a way that seemed to unsettle him. Instead, it underscored how the World Cup remains the clearest measure of sustained excellence.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s place in the discussion was equally unavoidable. FIFA recognizes him as the first man to score in five separate editions of the World Cup, and FIFA also says Messi and Ronaldo are the only players to have netted at five men’s World Cups. That record gives Mbappé’s comments their real context: the current generation may have its own stars, but the benchmark still runs through the Messi-Ronaldo era.

Haaland’s first World Cup with Norway and Kane’s presence among the tournament’s headline attackers only sharpened the contrast. Mbappé’s answer suggested that even as new names enter the debate, the most convincing standard of greatness still belongs to players who have spent years turning the World Cup into their personal stage.