Kylian Mbappé leaves World Cup with legacy intact, but nothing to show

By now, you’ve probably seen the clip on repeat. When Kylian Mbappé realized his World Cup dream, it was slipping away from him. It was in the 58th minute that Pedro Porro fired a right-footed shot into the back of the net, giving Spain the second goal of what became a 2-0 semifinal victory over France on Tuesday. Standing nearby, Mbappé watched the sequence unfold. As the ball crossed the line, he threw his left arm in the air, wiped his face with his jersey, then walked back toward midfield. One of football’s biggest stars and a player capable of changing a game on his own couldn’t do it this time. Not against a perfectly organized and disciplined Spanish team that frustrated France at every turn and made the tournament favorite look ordinary. Subsequently, Mbappé assumed his responsibilities. “You take all the glory when you win and when you don’t win you have to take the shit,” Mbappé said in all honesty. “It’s part of the game, it’s part of my game, it’s part of my life. And as captain I have to take all the responsibilities. I have no problem with that. We wanted to go to the final. We didn’t go there.” What does this result – and France now prepare for the third-place match against England instead of the final against Argentina – begin to say about Mbappé’s legacy? It’s a word often thrown around at major tournaments, used as a measure for the world’s greatest players, whether fair or not. This summer, France was to make a third consecutive appearance in the final. The Blues lifted the trophy in Russia in 2018, Mbappé’s World Cup debut. At 19, he scored four goals, including one in the 4-2 victory over Croatia in the final. That made him only the second teenager in history to score in a World Cup final, after Pelé in 1958. Then, four years ago, Mbappé raised the bar by scoring eight goals in Qatar, including the historic hat trick that forced Argentina into a penalty shootout in what will likely be remembered as one of the best World Cup finals ever played. Mbappé, then 23, won the Golden Boot – although he accepted the award with a blank expression, devastated that his team had been unable to complete a comeback. This year’s tournament was supposed to be the next step in Mbappé’s rise. And that’s how things started. The 27-year-old has scored eight goals, tying Lionel Messi at the top of the Golden Boot race. But in Tuesday’s semi-final, he had just three shots and none on target. He let his frustration boil over when he received a yellow card in the 86th minute after a collision with Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon. Moments later, his free kick from outside the area flew over the crossbar. We saw Mbappé single-handedly save France. But Spain was superior. “It’s a team that likes to have control of the game, to have control of the ball, and that’s what we let them do,” a dejected Mbappé said after the match. “It’s difficult when you don’t change Spain’s game.” Mbappé has 20 goals in three World Cups, behind Messi’s 21. He will undoubtedly break this record by playing in two or three more World Cups. However, the day after this defeat, the discourse around him changed. He looked like the obvious successor to Messi – and to be clear, he still can be. The two found themselves on opposite ends of the 2022 final where they exchanged spellbinding moments in a performance that felt like both the continuation of a rivalry and the passing of the torch. At club level, he is yet to win a Champions League title and last season at Real Madrid was disrupted by injuries and off-field drama. His former club Paris Saint-Germain won back-to-back Champions League crowns while rivals Barcelona won a second consecutive La Liga title after beating Real Madrid in an El Clásico that Mbappé missed. However, he arrived at this World Cup looking as dangerous as ever. But with Spain and Argentina progressing, this year’s final offers another version of the changing of the guard with Lamine Yamal versus Messi. Yamal, who turned 19 on Monday, will play in his first World Cup final at the same age as Mbappé when he reached his first. He has scored one goal so far in this tournament and would have scored another against France if not for an offside. He hasn’t had his big moment yet, even if we have the feeling that it’s coming. This could have been Mbappe’s moment to lead France to a second World Cup title in three cycles and avenge the heartbreak of four years ago. He’ll be 31 next game, but if we’ve learned anything from this summer, it’s that age doesn’t necessarily matter. Either way, it will be a long wait for this next opportunity.