How Kylian Mbappe psychologically defeated Lionel Messi for Spain in the World Cup final

In life, there comes a time when you just have to throw in the towel after a long grueling battle.

For the great Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, that moment came during the third place game of the FIFA World Cup 2026 that he didn’t even play in.

Going into that game, he and one of his arch-rivals, Kylian Mbappe, had been practically locked in the race to become the World Cup 2026 highest goalscorer and highest overall World Cup goalscorer.

And at that point, they were neck-to-neck but Messi had a slight statistical advantage as well as a psychological one.

Whilst he and Mbappe were on 8 goals each for the World Cup 2026 highest goalscorer, he had four assists to Mbappe’s three so he was ahead of him.

And for the highest-ever World Cup goalscorer, he was at 21 goals whilst Mbappe was at 20 so he was also ahead of him.

And he wasn’t just ahead statistically with more goals and assists, he was also ahead psychologically since his final game was the final which would take place after Mbappe played earlier in the third place game with the weight of knowing that whatever he achieved in it in terms of scoring and assisting, Messi could always overturn it in the final afterward.

And when the third place game began, the psychological weight on Mbappe was very obvious.

He couldn’t get into the game, despite needing to score goals, which was France’s main ambition for that game, but he was nowhere to be found.

And, watching definitely wherever he was, Messi was definitely buoyed by Mbappe’s struggles that if he couldn’t overcome them would automatically seal him as the World Cup’s highest goalscorer 2026 and overall highest goalscorer.

Then, suddenly, the tide turned for Mbappe in the second half of the third place game that has now become one of the greatest matches in football as it turned out to be a ten-goal thriller as well as history maker because Mbappe suddenly found his mojo after the halftime break.

Just three minutes into that second half, he scored the first goal to move ahead of Messi as the highest goalscorer 2026 and tie with him as the joint World Cup overall highest goalscorer.

Then he provided an assist to further boost his efforts to be the 2026 highest goalscorer and then scored a second goal to further boost it as well as become the undisputed highest-ever World Cup goalscorer.

And it was this stunning comeback of his, when the whole world thought that he had been defeated by Messi in their double goalscorer race, and Messi as well definitely thought it too, that defeated Messi psychologically before he even stepped on the pitch for the final because, honestly, how do you come back from that?

How do you keep fighting against a foe that never gives up?

Especially when it is so psychologically draining?

And that is why it was like Messi was paralyzed during the final and so had a game that was definitely the worst of his national team career.  

It was just because Mbappe had defeated him so psychologically.