Mbappé leads France past Senegal, becomes all-time top scorer

Kylian Mbappé is no longer France’s star of the future. At the New York/New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, he became the statistical face of Les Bleus, scoring twice in a 3-1 victory over Senegal and overtaking Olivier Giroud as the national team’s all-time leading scorer with 58 goals.

France needed time to find its rhythm in the Group I opener, but the match turned after a flat first half. Didier Deschamps’ side took control after the break, with Mbappé breaking the deadlock in the 66th minute and Bradley Barcola adding a second in the 82nd.

Mbappé then finished the game in stoppage time, restoring the sense that every decisive French moment now seems to pass through him. Senegal briefly cut the margin when Ibrahim Mbaye scored in the 90th minute plus five, only for Mbappé to answer again at 90th minute plus six and seal the result.

The double was more than a strong start to the tournament. With his 57th and 58th international goals, Mbappé moved beyond Giroud at the top of France’s scoring charts and confirmed how central he has become to the national team’s present and future. At 26, he is no longer being measured against what he might become. He is being measured against what France does when he is decisive.

His performance also rewrote the global record books in another way. Mbappé moved past Pelé and Lionel Messi on the list of all-time World Cup scorers, reaching 14 goals and leaving him two behind Miroslav Klose’s record of 16. That places the France captain inside the narrow group of players whose tournament output has defined an era.

There was also history in the opponent. France had opened the 2002 World Cup with a 1-0 defeat to Senegal, a result that has lingered for more than two decades as one of the national team’s most painful early tournament setbacks. This time, France settled the score in East Rutherford, and Mbappé supplied the goals that made the response emphatic.