Gooooooooals: Tracking Mbappé and Messi’s battle for the all-time World Cup scoring record

World CupMbappé vs. Messi: Who will kick their way to the World Cup goal record?NBC News is tracking the French star and the Argentine legend through their teams’ remaining matches.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Kylian Mbappe of France and Lionel Messi of Argentina celebrate goals during the 2026 World Cup.Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 26, 2026, 1:44 PM EDTBy Joelle Gross, Jiachuan Wu, Ashley Mowreader and Joe MurphyIt has taken twelve years to break this World Cup record, but any minute now it could be broken again.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.The record for most goals scored during a World Cup career has become a battle between the man who set the new record last week and the man likely to beat him.In his sixth and widely expected final World Cup, Argentinian Lionel Messi has scored five times already, including a hat trick in his opening game, catapulting the 39-year-old past Miroslav Klose’s 2014 record of 16 World Cup goals.Frenchman Kylian Mbappé, forward for the Les Bleus, is close behind. Mbappé has 16 World Cup goals, four scored in the first two games of the tournament. Both men entered the tournament neck and neck, with 13 previous World Cup goals for Messi and 12 for Mbappé. Messi has had more opportunities: This is his sixth World Cup, while it’s Mbappé’s third.Who ends up with the World Cup goal record could depend on how deep their team makes it into the tournament. Both teams are among the most likely to win the tournament, and according to multiple sportsbooks France is the current favorite with Argentina close behind. NBC News will update these graphics as Mbappé and Messi continue to score.The 2022 World Cup final, in Qatar, is the last time the two went head to head on the pitch. Argentina took home the trophy, but Mbappé notched himself a hat trick, only the second such feat in World Cup history.Messi is the first man to play in six Wo...