STARS OF THE 2026 WORLD CUP | Kylian Mbappé wants another trophy

Kylian Mbappé won his first Fifa World Cup at 19 with France in Russia in 2018.

After missing out by the narrowest of margins in Qatar in 2022, he will harbour a burning hunger for a second trophy at 27 this year.

He has much to prove in North America.

Fresh back from injury for Real Madrid, Mbappé will be raring to terrorise defences and put himself up with the top scorers from when France kick off their campaign against Senegal in New Jersey on June 16 (Iraq and Norway complete Group I).

Mbappé was joint second top scorer with four other players, with four goals to Harry Kane’s six in Russia in 2018, where there was no surprise he won the Fifa Young Player Award.

He was top scorer with eight goals to Lionel Messi’s seven in Qatar in 2022, helping France reach the final. In that classic clash — one of the great World Cup finals — Messi and Mbappé went blow for blow like prize fighters seeking football’s greatest trophy.

Messi’s Argentina, believing the great was playing in his last World Cup (it might not have been — he is considering coming back this year), prevailed through superhuman effort.

That might have been the high point of the early stage of Mbappé’s career. A move in 2024 to Real Madrid from Paris St Germain — where he won six Ligue 1 titles amid 15 trophies — has not been all rosy.

Surrounded by superstars, Mbappé has not stood out as much as he did at PSG and has not reached the trajectory he seemed destined for of clearly becoming the successor to Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world’s best player.

Surrounded by more superstars with Les Bleus, including Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembélé, a fit-again Mbappé is a bookies’ favourite to steer arguably the most consistently impressive national team since the late 1990s (World Cup winners in 1998 and 2018, losing finalists in 2006 and 2022, and Euro winners in 2000) at least back to another World Cup final.

Mbappé can continue to float just below being named the world’s best player, or truly become it, in North America.

• Age: 27
• Club: Real Madrid
• Previous clubs: Monaco, Paris St-Germain
• Previous World Cups: 2018 (winner), 2022 (runner-up)
• Club honours:
• Ligue 1 (6) 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24;
• Coupe de France (4) 2017–18, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2023–24;
• Coupe de la Ligue (2) 2017–18, 2019–20;
• Trophée des Champions (3) 2019, 2020, 2023;
• Uefa Super Cup (1) 2024;
• Fifa Intercontinental Cup (1) 2024.
• National honours:
• Fifa World Cup (1) 2018;
• Uefa Nations League (1) 2020–21.

• TimesLIVE, Sowetan, The Herald and Daily Dispatch will run a series profiling the STARS OF THE 2026 WORLD CUP every Friday until the tournament kickoff on June 11. There will be a GROUP PROFILE every Tuesday.