Kylian Mbappe’s World Cup Scoring Milestone Raises Questions About the Value of the Third‑Place Match

Kylian Mbappe is now the World Cup’s all‑time leading goal scorer and the top scorer of this tournament, having overtaken Lionel Messi with two goals in the crazy 6-4 loss to England in the third-place game on Saturday. However, the achievement should carry an asterisk. Let’s be frank: third‑place matches are about as useful as a surfboard in Nebraska. They confer an “honor” that hardly anyone recalls or cares about, sitting somewhere between a meaningless friendly and the Club World Cup final. Quick—who contested the third‑place match at the 2006 World Cup? Time’s up. It was Germany versus Portugal, yet most fans draw a blank.

In Saturday’s wild 6‑4 England victory over France, Mbappe pushed his career World Cup total to 22, surpassing Messi’s 21, in a contest where defensive effort was largely absent. He also became the first player since Gerd Müller in 1970 to reach double‑digit goals in a single World Cup, finishing with 10. Those rank among the most notable individual scoring records in the sport, and Mbappe claimed both in the same afternoon, in a game that ultimately decided nothing beyond who gets to stand a notch higher on a podium few wanted to occupy.

Certainly, France avoided defeat in the group stage, round of 32, round of 16, and quarterfinals, but Les Bleus fell in the semifinals, 2‑0 to Spain, a match in which Mbappe barely featured. The tournament favorites were subdued, produced little, and arguably deserved an early exit.

Under the usual knockout‑stage rules, a semifinal loss should have ended Mbappe’s World Cup run. Elsewhere in the bracket, a single loss in the knockout rounds sends you home—lose in the round of 16 or quarterfinals, and it’s over. A semifinal loss, however, triggers a bonus match three days later against another team that also just lost—a consolation final for the defeated. Copa América has kept this third‑place fixture since 1993 (memorable mainly for the Messi–Medel altercation), while UEFA abandoned it after 1980, one of the many areas where Europe gets it right.

I understand that the Olympics still award a bronze medal, which makes sense when medals are everything. FIFA has certainly heard calls to scrap the third‑place match because nobody treats it with the same seriousness as the semifinals they just lost. Coaches rotate entire lineups, stars sit out (enjoy the show, Harry Kane?), and tactical decisions deviate from the norm. Did you notice Thomas Tuchel holding back Dan Burn?

Contrast that with an Olympic bronze‑medal bout. Boxers and wrestlers leave everything on the mat for third place because it is a genuine medal, permanently recorded. Meanwhile, Dean Henderson played the full 90 minutes here.

Look, Mbappe deserves every accolade he has earned at previous World Cups. But this record was bolstered by a game that the sport itself largely regards as inconsequential.

Perhaps it is time for FIFA to reconsider the third‑place match, though they likely won’t. There is money to be made for the governing body and the host city, and if you haven’t noticed yet, that is what truly drives decisions—the game itself comes second.

Mbappe gained two extra games’ worth of scoring opportunities that a quarterfinal loser such as Erling Haaland does not receive. Padding a statistic in a match that exists only because two teams fell short feels like a questionable habit, though it is far from the only one.

This World Cup has introduced a hint of “Americanization” to the global game, whether we like it or not. On Sunday we will endure the first-ever World Cup halftime show, and the champions will be receiving championship rings.

Can you picture the NFL or the College Football Playoff staging a third‑place game?

Tom Brady, Nick Saban—time to place a call.

Source link