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Preview data: all rankings, scores, votes, refresh labels, methodology, testing and editorial-process statements in Top 49 are illustrative demo content, not live measurements or documented reviews.
Rank 074Down 4
#7 in Greatest World Cup Performances
of 15 ranked entries
Kylian Mbappé
Forward · France · 2015–present
World Cup champion at 19 in 2018, then the second player ever to score a World Cup final hat-trick, in 2022 — and still finished on the losing side that night. Recorded specifics: position Forward, country France, debut 2015. Panel highlighted 2018 World Cup champion at just 19 years old, second player in history to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final and 2022 World Cup Golden Boot despite France losing the final. The reservation on record is still without a Ballon d’Or despite multiple runner-up finishes.
World Cup winner
Score breakdown
How Kylian Mbappé earned 84.5
Each criterion is scored independently, then combined using the weights published on Greatest World Cup Performances.
- Tournament-defining impactweight 30%
- 85.1
- Goals & outputweight 25%
- 83.7
- Degree of difficultyweight 25%
- 82.3
- Legacy of the performanceweight 20%
- 87.2
On the record
Recorded detail
| Position | Forward |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Debut | 2015 |
| World Cups + Ballons d’Or | 1 |
| Rating | 8.7 |
Panel verdict
Strengths and reservations
What it gets right
- 2018 World Cup champion at just 19 years old
- Second player in history to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final
- 2022 World Cup Golden Boot despite France losing the final
Where it gives ground
- Still without a Ballon d’Or despite multiple runner-up finishes
From the same list
Ranked alongside it
Rank 01Editor’s pickLionel Messi
Soccer · Argentina · 2004–present
Eight Ballon d’Or awards, more than double anyone else’s total, and a 2022 World Cup final performance that closed the one gap left on his résumé. The Barcelona academy graduate who never needed to leave to prove anything, then left anyway and won it all again in Paris and Miami.
94.7/100 Top 49 score—No change
Rank 02Editor’s pickDiego Maradona
Soccer · Argentina · 1976–1997
Carried an otherwise ordinary Argentina side to the 1986 World Cup virtually alone, scoring the “Hand of God” and the “Goal of the Century” in the same match. Peak for peak, no one has taken over a tournament quite so completely.
93.4/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 03Editor’s pickPelé
Soccer · Brazil · 1956–1977
The only man to win three World Cups, the last of them as a 29-year-old anchoring Brazil’s 1970 side, arguably the finest team ever assembled. Statistics from the amateur-adjacent fixtures of his early career are disputed; the World Cup record is not.
92.5/100 Top 49 score2Up 2
Rank 04Cristiano Ronaldo
Soccer · Portugal · 2002–present
Five Ballon d’Or awards and the all-time leading scorer in men’s international football, built on a training obsessiveness that has kept him a starting-calibre forward into his forties. The World Cup remains the one line on the résumé he could never fill in.
90.9/100 Top 49 score4Up 4
Rank 05Johan Cruyff
Forward · Netherlands · 1964–1984
The face and brain of Total Football, a system that treated every outfield position as interchangeable and still shapes how Ajax, Barcelona and most of modern coaching think about space.
90.3/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 06Franz Beckenbauer
Defender · West Germany · 1964–1983
Invented the modern attacking sweeper role and remains the only person to captain a World Cup-winning team, in 1974, and later coach one, in 1990.
89.3/100 Top 49 score2Up 2
Rank 07Zinedine Zidane
Midfielder · France · 1988–2006
Two headers won the 1998 World Cup final outright; a red card in his final match, the 2006 final, still nearly cost France the trophy on penalties instead.
87.2/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
Rank 08Ronaldo Nazário
Forward · Brazil · 1993–2011
Won the Golden Boot and the 2002 World Cup itself, scoring both goals in the final, in a redemption arc from the mysterious pre-match collapse that derailed his 1998 final four years earlier.
86.5/100 Top 49 score1Up 1
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Top 49 rankings are editorial. Scores are produced from the published criteria on each list and are refreshed on the cadence stated there. Figures shown across this section are curated demonstration data.