Mbappé approaches Messi: 'I'm not going to start a drama series with Leo'

Kylian Mbappe doesn't like the idea of ​​setting up a drawn-out battle with Lionel Messi. The French striker took France by the hand against Iraq with two early goals and moved closer to the Argentine in the hunt for the status of all-time top scorer at the World Cup.

The match in Philadelphia was a war of attrition due to heavy weather and lasted almost four hours in total. 'It was a very long evening. We had to spend two hours in the locker room. That asks a lot of you," Mbappé said afterwards at L'Équipe.


With his double, Mbappé now has sixteen goals in sixteen World Cup matches. In this tournament he has four goals, good for a shared second place with Erling Haaland. Lionel Messi leads the list after his double against Austria and is one goal ahead. 'I don't know how many goals I need. For me that's not that important. I have always scored at the World Cup, so I am not worried about that. I want us to progress as a team, because we will face even tougher opposition if we want to win the world title.'

Mbappé does not want to hear much about the comparison with Messi. 'There is no rivalry. Lionel has always scored and he still does. I only look at my own team. I don't want to start some kind of drama series with Leo.'

Afterwards, national coach Didier Deschamps underlined the exceptional productivity of his star player. According to the French selector, 'records are meant to be broken'. He pointed out that Mbappé has already scored sixty times in a hundred international matches and expects the tally to rise considerably: as long as he plays, he will continue to score and raise the bar, according to Deschamps.

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