French national football team forward Kylian Mbappé has surpassed the record of 1986 World Cup winner Diego Maradona of Argentina in terms of matches played at the tournament. He achieved this milestone on July 18 by starting in the match against the England national team.
This encounter marked Mbappé’s 22nd game in World Cup tournaments, allowing the footballer to claim sole eighth place in this statistical category.
Currently, Mbappé is trailed by seven players. The leader of the list is Argentine Lionel Messi, who has 33 matches to his name. He is followed by Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (27), Germans Lothar Matthäus (25) and Miroslav Klose (24). Italians Paolo Maldini, Croatian Luka Modrić, and German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer have each played 23 games.
Mbappé is 27 years old and has been representing the Spanish club Real Madrid since 2024. In the 2024–25 season, the forward won the Spanish Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.
On July 14, during a World Cup match against Spain, Mbappé set a record for the French national team in terms of matches played at World Cups. The game against the Spanish team was the 21st for the forward.
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