Kylian Mbappe is having himself an incredible World Cup. The French star is currently tied with Lionel for the lead in the Golden Boot race with eight goals through his country's first eight matches. While there's something special about what he does with the ball at his feet, it's also worth discussing what he does when he's just out there running around.
A lot was made earlier this week about the way that Norway's Erling Haaland moves slowly to set up his attacks, but maybe we should instead be focusing on the speed with which Mbappe does the same. On the play where Mbappe earned a penalty kick in the first half he was absolutely flying. Watching him accelerate and run past defenders it looked like he was running very fast and it turns out, he was.
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Mbappe was measured at 37.6 kilometers per hour during the match. It was the fastest recorded speed of anyone at the 2026 World Cup.
That's impressive. But when you Americanize those numbers and convert them to miles per hour you'll find out Mbappe was running 23.36 mph. Below is Raheem Mostert running 23.1 mph back in 2020. Tyreek Hill's top recorded speed in 23.24 mph back in 2017. Basically, in that video up there, that is about the fastest we've ever seen anyone run in a professional team sport.