Messi or Mbappe? Which star made the biggest impact during World Cup openers?

The first round of fixtures at the 2026 World Cup have been and gone, and boy did we see some strong performances. Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe showed why they are the cream of the crop - on the same day no less - while the opening matches also allowed for new heroes to be formed such as Cape Verde’s 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha. Going from 50,000 followers to 10 million in a matter of days is one way to measure how historic your display was.

There are others to have caught the eye, but who really shone the brightest from the first 24 games?