BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountHomeNewsFootball 2026BusinessTechnologyHealthCultureArtsTravelEarthSportAudioVideoLiveMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsFootball 2026BusinessTechnologyHealthCultureArtsTravelEarthSportAudioVideoLiveClose menu BBC SportMenuHomeWorld CupFootballCricketFormula 1Rugby UTennisGolfCyclingAthleticsMoreA-Z SportsAmerican FootballAthleticsBasketballBoxingCricketCyclingDartsDisability SportFootballFormula 1Gaelic GamesGolfGymnasticsHorse RacingMixed Martial ArtsMotorsportNetballOlympic SportsRugby LeagueRugby UnionSnookerSwimmingTennisFull Sports A-ZMore from SportEnglandScotlandWalesNorthern IrelandNews FeedsHelp & FAQsFIFA World CupGroups & ScheduleScores & FixturesTablesFollow Your TeamTop ScorersProject Mbappe - the road to becoming France's record scorer Image source, Getty ImagesBySean Kearns, BBC Sport and Andy Cryer, BBC Sport senior journalistJust Fontaine, Michel Platini, Jean-Pierre Papin, Thierry Henry, Olivier Giroud. France have had their fair share of brilliant attacking players over the years. But none better - in goalscoring terms at least - than Kylian Mbappe after his goals in his country's World Cup opener against Senegal. The Real Madrid forward has become France's all-time record scorer, overtaking Giroud in the record books with his 58th goal for Les Bleus, aged just 27. "Congratulations Kylian," Giroud said on BBC One, working as a pundit for France's game against Senegal. "I'm happy for him. "It makes sense, it was expected. He will beat every single record - the number of caps and goals. I think he can easily reach 100 goals and maybe [beat] Miroslav Klose's World Cup record. He's delivered great performances in World Cups and big games." Mbappe's 58 strikes came in just 99 games for France. Tuesday's goals also put him on 14 in World Cups - just two behind Germany's Klose, who holds the record with 16. "A lot of team-mates ask me about him," Giroud added. "For me it's just ambition and confidence. "He knows where he wants to go, he is a leader and you could see from a young age he was very at ease. He was mature for his age. He is a good team-mate, he is an incredible talent and I think he is a proper leader on and off the pitch." To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be played French football expert Julien Laurens believes Mbappe will become the greatest player in the country's history. "There is still a lot more to come from him but if we are to stop it right now, Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini certainly remain the top two French players of all time," said Laurens. "After that it is Mbappe ahead of Thierry Henry, Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud and others. Even the ones from the old generation like Raymond Kopa. "It is not just for his goals, but his leadership now as captain on the field, winning the World Cup in 2018, scoring a hat-trick in the final in 2022. "I predict him to be the number one by the end of his career. He has at least one more World Cup after this and the Euros to play in so he will probably become the greatest player we have ever had." To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be played Kylian Mbappe: From humble beginnings in Bondy to idolising Cristiano Ronaldo Having made his international debut in March 2017, it was not until Mbappe's fourth appearance for France that he scored his first goal in a 4-0 World Cup qualifier against the Netherlands. Earlier in the day, Paris St-Germain agreed an initial season-long loan deal to sign the then-18-year-old striker from Monaco, with the option to buy for £165.7m. The Parisians would, of course, activate their option to sign Mbappe - making him the most expensive teenager in the history of football in the process. By the time Mbappe had completed his move to the French capital, he was already a national hero. He had spearheaded France's run to World Cup glory in 2018, becoming the youngest French player to score at a World Cup and the second teenager - after Pele - to score in a World Cup final. Finishing as the joint second-highest goalscorer in Russia, Mbappe was named the young player of the tournament in recognition of his performances. By the time of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar he had established himself as France's talisman. The then-23 year old became just the second player after England's Geoff Hurst to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final - despite losing to Lionel Messi's Argentina on penalties. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Kylian Mbappe made his first start for France - his third cap - in a 3-2 friendly win against England in June 2017 Mbappe and, significantly, his entire family, have always had it in their mind they wanted the striker to reach the top of the global game. And so 'Project Mbappe' was born. "Kylian was just school and football," says childhood friend Rayan Viyanga in a BBC Sport documentary called Mbappe. "School, football, home." He was born on the outskirts of Paris in the suburb of Bondy in 1998, just five months after France won the World Cup for the first time. The family flat overlooked the AS Bondy football pitches, where his father Wilfried was a player turned coach. "Kylian was already one step ahead of many other players at AS Bondy," Viyanga said. "He was advanced for his age group and wanted to play with the best. That was a strict rule of his, to play with the best." Laurens added: "As a kid, he learned La Marseillaise at the age of three just to be ready to sing it when that first cap would come." Mbappe - whose mother Fayza Lamari is a former professional handball player - pinned up pictures of idol Cristiano Ronaldo and watched old footage of Zidane, another Real Madrid superstar. A bigger influence closer to home though was Jires Kembo Ekoko, his adopted brother, who was selected for the French Federation's national academy at Clairefontaine years before Mbappe himself went there. Ekoko went on to play for Rennes in Ligue 1.
Original Source: BBC Sport
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