Despite producing a breathtaking World Cup campaign in which he scored eight goals and added three assists across France's first six matches, Kylian Mbappe was silenced when it mattered most. Spain shut down the French captain completely in Tuesday's semifinal in Dallas, ending both his influence and France's bid for a third successive World Cup final.
For a side that arrived with the tournament's most feared attacking quartet, France barely threatened. They managed just three shots on target, with their first not arriving until the 81st minute. Mbappe, remarkably, failed to register a single shot on target for only the second time in his World Cup career. The first came in the 2022 quarter-final against England, a match France still won 2-1.
France's title hopes may be over, but Mbappe's pursuit of the Golden Boot remains alive.
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The 27-year-old still has one match left, Saturday's third-place playoff in Miami against the loser of the England-Argentina semifinal, giving him one final opportunity to add to his tally of eight goals.
However, the race is far from over.
Lionel Messi is level with Mbappe on eight goals but trails him because of having two assists in the tournament. England duo Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham remain firmly in contention as well with six goals each, and unlike Mbappe, both are guaranteed two more matches should England defeat Argentina on Wednesday.
That makes the third-place playoff unusually significant in the race for the Golden Boot.
The last time the consolation match played such a decisive role was in 1958, when France legend Just Fontaine scored four goals against West Germany to finish with a still-unmatched record of 13 goals in a single World Cup.
Mbappe will be looking to win his second straight Golden Boot award, having achieved it in 2022 with seven goals. Kane, too, won it in 2018. Messi has yet to claim that award.
There is another landmark within Mbappe's reach.
His quiet evening against Spain meant he remained on 20 World Cup goals from just 21 appearances, leaving him only one behind Lionel Messi's all-time tally of 21. With age firmly on his side and potentially two more World Cups ahead, the French captain has every chance of rewriting football's biggest scoring record in the years to come.