When the World Cup is played in North America less than four years from now in 2026, Kylian Mbappe would have turned 27. A World Cup winner at 19, Mbappe, who turns 24 on Tuesday, is expected to be more marauding, more decisive. He left his footprint on Sunday’s final by scoring a hat-trick. It’s just bad luck that he had to finish second.
The future looks bright for Mbappe and in the 2026 World Cup, he will have another chance to earn France their third star. He is expected to be supported by a clutch of players who will be in their prime. In Marcus Thuram, Eduardo Camavinga, Kingsley Coman, Aurelien Tchouameni, Youssouf Fofana, France have an enviable line-up of talented players, who can run any opposition ragged.
On Sunday, Argentina won the World Cup but not before getting a taste of the French fighting spirit. Trailing 2-0, when the majority of the 88,966 present at the Lusail Stadium thought that the match was done and dusted for Argentina, Mbappe came up with two strikes within a minute to make it 2-2. The second one he scored on the volley was more of a strike of contempt, much like Viv Richards did to hapless bowlers.
On both the occasions — the first was a penalty — Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez got a touch of the ball but that’s all. He was beaten all ends up. Lionel Messi made it 3-2 in the 108th minute, Mbappe once again came to the party in the 118th minute, this time with his second penalty of the match. Three-all.
Such was the tension that during the tie-breaker, when Argentina were leading 3-1, the fans were not sure whether Messi and his mates would be able to pull it through.
That’s what France did to Argentina. Part of it was because of two changes France coach Didier Deschamps made in the 41st minute.
Experience has taught him to be pragmatic and he realised that unless Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele were pulled out, France will struggle more.
Angel Di Maria was doing all sorts of things to Jules Kounde and Dembele on the left and Antoine Griezmann just did not know how to get away from Enzo Fernandes and Alexis Mac Allister.
All the attacks were routed through the left channel where Mbappe was operating and that suited Argentina fine. Deschamps brought in Marcus Thuram in place of Giroud, while Randal Kolo Muani replaced Dembele; Mbappe was asked to come to a central position.
“I don’t want to point the finger at Olivier (Giroud) and Ousmane (Dembele). But I thought they were struggling. So to reverse the tide I made the changes,” Deschamps said later at the news conference.
The game slowly started to change and once Coman came in place of Theo Fernandez and Camavinga replaced Griezmann, Argentina were rattled.
“Potentially, the French team has always had a huge amount of players to choose from,” Deschamps said.
Deschamps, despite missing several players like Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, and Karim Benzema to name a few, never really complained.
Even when the flu hit the French camp, France were at ease. For example, against Morocco, Fofana and Ibrahima Konate excelled taking the places of Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamecano.
On Sunday, Upamecano returned to action and made amends for the mistake which led to Di Maria’s goal in the first half with a crucial block that denied Lautaro Martinez a chance to score deep into the second half of extra time.
Or say Coman. He snatched the ball from Lionel Messi and started the move which ended with Mbappe’s out-ofthe-world volley. He was in complete control of himself till that missed penalty in the tie-breaker.
“We were in the Euro final, we won the 2018 Cup and the Nations League. Yes, we were out of Euro 2020 a bit early but overall France look very good,” Deschamps, who hasn’t decided on his future with a team he has been for the last 10 years, said.
As Mbappe walked through the mixed zone, it seemed he had a steely resolve — to go one step further in the summer of ’26.
