Kylian Mbappe leaves Lionel Messi far behind with milestone World Cup goal against Iraq

Kylian Mbappe has become the fastest player in FIFA World Cup history to score 15 goals as he has left legends like Lionel Messi and Ronaldo behind in this list.

READ | France vs Iraq Live Score, FIFA World Cup 2026

Mbappe, playing his 100th international match, opened scoring for France against Iraq in their second Group I encounter of the 2026 World Cup. His 14th minute strike helped France take the lead and also pushed his overall World Cup goal tally to 15.

The Real Madrid striker has reached to 15 goals in just 16 matches, breaking the record of Brazil legend Ronaldo who had scored his 15th goal in his 18th match. Messi has now been pushed to fourth in this list with Germany's Miroslav Klose ahead of him. Klose took 23 matches to reach the milestone while the Argentine legend took 27.

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Mbappe's strike against Iraq also brought him level with Brazil's Ronaldo in the list of all-time top-scorers in World Cup history. The 27-year-old now remains just three behind the all-time record which Messi just established with a brace against Austria right before France-Iraq encounter.

With his strike on Monday, Mbappe continued his rich vein of scoring form for France with 11 goals for the French captain in his past 12 outings.

France-Iraq match suspended

While the first half was still on, rain arrived in and around the Philadelphia Stadium. It did not have much impact on the game and the first half was completed. However, the start of the second half had to be delayed to due to bad weather.

This has become the first match of this World Cup to be delayed by the threat of severe weather, with strict protocols in place in the United States when a storm is detected in the surrounding area.

Matches at last year's Club World Cup in the US were also suspended due to bad weather but this is the first time that this is happening in this tournament.