(Football news) Kylian Mbappe won the Golden Boot award after scoring a scintillating hat trick for France in their World Cup final defeat against Argentina on Sunday. Mbappe went on to score his sixth, seventh and eighth goals of the tournament to take his total tally to 12 in the competition overall. In a mere consolation for the 23 year old who edged out his club teammate Lionel Messi, who scored twice in the final himself, and ended the World Cup with seven goals as well as being handed the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player.
Kylian Mbappe has already etched himself into the history books by winning one World Cup for France, and he almost won a second for his country single-handedly against Argentina. His two goals in the space of 97 seconds was quite a surreal moment especially in the final 10 minutes of the game to give his nation a lifeline after they had trailed 2-0 since the first half. The Paris Saint-Germain star then added a third to claim his hat trick in extra time but despite his heroics where he also netted his spot kick in the shootout, France couldn’t become the first team to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962.
With the France squad being hit by an unexpected virus in the buildup to the game, it was a remarkable achievement for Les Bleus to fight back from two goals down to take the game to penalties especially when they looked down and out in the 80th minute. The likes of Raphael Varane, Ibrahima Konate, Dayot Upamecano, Adrien Rabiot and Kingsley Coman were all unable to train on Friday, and three of them in Varane, Upamecano and Rabiot started the game as it looked evident that they were lacking energy and the eagerness to win the ball
The lack of spirit was evident for most of the game until Mbappe proved to the World why he is touted as one of the best players in the world when he gave the Les Blues hope with an 80th-minute penalty. The French were so bad in the first half that Deschamps substituted Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele before the first half ended and it didn’t get much better in the second half. Even Antoine Griezmann, who has been one of the players of the tournament, failed to see out the game with Deschamps replacing him with 20 minutes to go. A final is when the big players show up and make the difference, but France’s were missing out on the majority of their top stars until Mbappe decided to take matters in his own hands and exploded into life in 80 minutes.
Despite almost carrying his team to glory, Mbappe couldn’t take France all the way. He now has the unenviable distinction of scoring a hat trick in a World Cup final and still ending up on the losing side. He became the first player since Geoff Hust in 1966 to score a World Cup hattrick and in doing so he has also scored the most goals in the finals in the history of World Cups. At the age of 23 the world is at his feet and he can achieve more greatness if he continues to play like this in the future. With 12 goals in the World Cup he is on course to break Klose’s record of 16 goals in the tournament as France can surely go on to win more World Cups in the future considering the depth they have in the squad.
Also read: Lionel Messi leads Argentina to World Cup glory with victory against France
