Kylian Mbappe has the opportunity to become the youngest player to win two World Cups Pele achieved the feat at the age of 21.

Mbappe, who will turn 24 just two days after the World Cup final, is the tournament’s joint leading scorer with five goals and a symbol of the sport’s emerging youth generation.

The tournament in Qatar will undoubtedly be the last World Cup for Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who have dominated the sport for nearly two decades.

While Messi has one last shot at winning the World Cup, Mbappe and France hope to usher in a period of dominance for a country that has reached the final four times in seven tries.

There were real worries that France would repeat their 2002 group stage exit as holders after an injury-ravaged and underperforming squad.

The French team may not have set the world on fire on their way to the championship game, but they have proven to be unstoppable in the clutch.

This is largely due to Mbappe, the most feared player in the world, whose goals have brought France within one win of becoming the first team to retain the World Cup since Brazil in 1962.

“There is a great connection between the team. We work together but, when you start to come close to the title in this competition you need your main players at their best,” said goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris.

Mbappe scored twice against Argentina in the round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and was subsequently named the tournament’s best young player.

Mbappe scored in the World Cup final at the age of 19, making him the youngest player to do so since Pele at the age of 17 in 1958, and he already has more World Cup goals than either Portugal’s Ronaldo or Argentina’s Diego Maradona.

In his first major tournament, he scored four times, including the game-winning goal in France’s 4-2 victory over Croatia.

For France, only Just Fontaine, who scored an unbelievable 13 times in the 1958 tournament in Sweden, has scored more World Cup goals.

Photo by EPA/Georgi Licovski