00:00Lionel Messi has scored 21 World Cup goals.
00:03Kylian Mbappé is already on 20.
00:05And at just 27 years old, he's got plenty of football left.
00:09Now, Messi has admitted his record may not last.
00:12But that wasn't the biggest surprise.
00:14He followed it up with another bold claim that's got football fans talking.
00:17Let's start with the numbers, because the numbers are what make this whole thing insane.
00:22With his goal against Egypt in the round of 16,
00:25Lionel Messi occupies the number one spot as the highest goal scorer in men's World Cup history,
00:31with 21 goals, while Kylian Mbappé sits alone in second place right behind him,
00:36with 20 goals after scoring against Morocco in the round of 8.
00:40One goal separates the two greatest forwards of this generation on the biggest scoring list in the sport.
00:45Here's what makes it wild.
00:47Mbappé's 20 goals have come in just three World Cup appearances.
00:50Messi needed six tournaments to get to 21.
00:53And Mbappé's doing it in half the time.
00:55And he's not slowing down.
00:56Look at the per-game numbers across his 31 World Cup appearances.
01:00Messi averages two goals per three games played.
01:03Mbappé, who has logged 20 World Cup matches, averages one per game.
01:08One goal every single game for his entire World Cup career.
01:11Nobody else in the history of the tournament has sustained that rate across three editions.
01:16And he's still only 27.
01:18He's only 27 years old and has 20 goals in 20 World Cup appearances.
01:24Messi is 39 this tournament.
01:25In his sixth and widely expected final World Cup,
01:29Argentine Lionel Messi, 39, has scored eight times already,
01:33including a hat-trick in his opening game,
01:35catapulting him past Miroslav Klosia's 2014 record of 16 World Cup goals.
01:41This is Messi's last dance, Mbappé, at 27, is just entering his athletic prime.
01:46Statistically, he's got one, maybe two more World Cups left in him if his body holds up.
01:51And if he keeps scoring at a goal a game, the math writes itself.
01:55Messi has watched this chase happen in real time,
01:57from the same pitches, sometimes on the same night.
02:00Both men were level for stretches of this tournament.
02:02That's why France's Kylian Mbappé is in the driver's seat.
02:05Both he and Argentine legend Lionel Messi have eight goals at one stage of the group phase.
02:12They've traded the lead back and forth like two boxers trading punches in a fight.
02:16Neither one wants to lose.
02:18When reporters have pushed Messi and Mbappé to talk about each other directly,
02:23neither one has dodged it.
02:24Mbappé was blunt about where he stands.
02:27I already knew Leo was going to score goals.
02:30He's Leo Messi.
02:32He always scores.
02:33Mbappé said in response to his former PSG teammate's hat-trick,
02:37He's the one who holds the record.
02:39I'm behind him.
02:40I'm going to keep trying to score, to help my team get as far as possible.
02:44Of course, by scoring goals, you get closer to that sort of record.
02:48That's Mbappé.
02:49In his own words, admitting the record is right there in front of him.
02:54Messi has responded to Mbappé's rise with something close to respect bordering on resignation.
02:59Reporters have asked him directly who's the best player at this World Cup.
03:03And Messi hasn't hidden from crediting Mbappé's level.
03:06The two have known each other since their Paris Saint-Germain days,
03:10when they shared a locker room and a front line.
03:12And that familiarity shows every time they're asked about each other.
03:16There's no false modesty.
03:18No manufactured rivalry for the cameras.
03:20Just two players who know exactly what the other is capable of.
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