KAZAN, Russia—On the day the World Cup bid farewell to the greatest player on the planet, it didn’t have to look far for a potential successor. He was right there on the same field as Lionel Messi, doing Lionel Messi things—only faster and in French.
His name is Kylian Mbappé. He’s 19 years old. And he’s going to be around for a while.
In one of the all-time great coming-out performances at a World Cup, Mbappé scored a pair of decisive goals, terrorized Argentina’s defense and sent France into the quarterfinals with a 4-3 victory. More than that, Mbappé signaled that when the time comes for Argentina’s Messi to pass the torch, the Parisian kid with a turbo engine was ready to sprint away with it.
The last teenager to score twice in a World Cup game? A Brazilian named Pelé in the 1958 final. Mbappé is so young that he doesn’t remember the last time France won the World Cup in 1998. He was born five months after the tournament.
“Let’s put things in context: Pele is another category,” Mbappé said after the match. “But it’s good to be in that company.”
At the final whistle, Mbappé sprinted one last time for the afternoon to join his teammates in wild celebration.
The 31-year-old Messi, meanwhile, spent a long time on the field with his hands on his hips. The man who has spent so long atop the world that his teenage prodigy years seem an eternity ago now had an ending to consider. His age makes it unlikely he will play at another World Cup. His frustration with Argentina’s national team makes it doubly so.
But for Mbappé, the World Cup thrill ride is just beginning.
The world of club soccer has known for a while he had something special. He has been on coaches’ radars since he was a preteen and he made his debut at AS Monaco at 16. Last summer, he moved to Paris Saint-Germain for more than $200 million. He immediately found his place in the starting lineup alongside the Brazilian playmaker Neymar.
Starting the hype and living up to it was one thing. Suggesting that the hype actually might have been an understatement was another.
Mbappé announced his menace from the game’s opening moments. Against a creaking Argentine defense—average age, 30—he took every possible opportunity to attack at full speed. Three times in the first 15 minutes, he sowed utter panic with total teenage irreverence.
Nine minutes in, Mbappé won a free kick on the edge of Argentina’s penalty area that Antoine Griezmann smacked against the crossbar.
Two minutes later, he was at it again. He pounced on a loose ball inside his own half and left two Argentines in his dust. He then blew past Marcos Rojo so fast that Rojo, unable to hold him back, had no choice but to pull him down. No video review was necessary. This time, Griezmann didn’t miss and dispatched the penalty kick.
“They’ve been thinking about playing games like this for months,” France manager Didier Deschamps said. “They’ve been preparing for weeks. We couldn’t mess it up and they didn’t.”
Argentina threatened to steal back some of the stardust late in the first half with Angel di Maria’s equalizing goal. His swerving blast from 30 yards sailed past Hugo Lloris into the French net to send the heavily Argentine crowd into hysterics. It was the longest-range goal of the tournament so far.
The momentum stayed with Argentina into the second half, and it even took the lead when Messi finally made his presence felt. He had been so toothless in the first 45 minutes that only one of his 33 touches occurred in the French penalty area. His next few in sight of France’s goal were more effective. Messi collected a half-cleared cross, cut onto his left foot and fired at Lloris. By chance, his teammate Gabriel Mercado was on the ball’s trajectory to turn it away from the goalkeeper and into the net.
No one was quite sure heading into the game which versions of these teams would show up. Argentina had been a mess in the group stage, racked by internal strife and tactical confusion. Only a special Messi performance against Nigeria had rescued the team in time to advance to the round of 16. Now they could see the quarterfinals.
France had looked more solid, but lacked magic. Les Bleus had churned out a pair of workmanlike victories over Australia and Peru before settling for a torpid scoreless draw against Denmark. It was enough for France to finish top of its group, though that didn’t stop the team’s fans from turning against the manager, Deschamps, and his safety-first tactics. Now they faced elimination.
That’s when the magic returned in the unlikely form of France’s right-back Benjamin Pavard. He zeroed in on bouncing ball outside the Argentine penalty area and struck one of the sweetest shots of the tournament, cutting it perfectly into the far corner.
And yet, neither Pavard’s wondergoal nor Di Maria’s bolt from the blue could distract from the realization that this would be Mbappé’s afternoon.
He danced free from the Argentine defense, twisting and turning with such obvious glee, scoring twice to put France in the lead and then in the quarterfinals.
At 4-2, Les Bleus were untouchable, even when Sergio Aguero scored a late goal.
And at 19, Mbappé may already be untouchable, too.
Write to Joshua Robinson at joshua.robinson@wsj.com
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