Thomas Bourseau
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Editor
Passionate about sports, Thomas grew up between a round soccer ball and an orange basketball, two of his lifelong favorite games. Having graduated from the European Institute of Journalism in Paris with a Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees, he always closely follows the adventures of Arsenal and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 2026 World Cup playoff match began on Sunday evening in the match between South Africa and Canada (0:1). Going into the round of 16, Vinicius Jr was shining in the groups, scoring in every match and winning each of the man of the match trophies. Something that didn’t happen for 12 years with Lionel Messi and 16 years with Cristiano Ronaldo.
World Cup this is a competition in which Kylian Mbappe is the most decisive when choosing. In 17 matches, the best scorer in historyFrench team with 60 goals, he signed 16 goals. And yet, Design never managed to become man of the match against the Blues in the group stages. In the history of the world championships there were only two before this one World Cup 2026 be able to make a splash in the group stage.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi are the only players to finish the World Cup group stage with three MVP trophies.
In 2010 in South Africa Cristiano Ronaldo managed to be elected man of the match against Korea North (7-0), on Ivory Coast (0-0) and Brazil (0-0). Four years later, it was the turn of its great rival in Brazil. Lionel Messi do the same. Against Bosnia–Herzegovina (2-1), Iran (1-0), Nigeria (3-2). And since then nothing. We had to wait until the 2026 World Cup on American soil to see another player sign the same performance: Vinicius Jr.
Vinicius Jr., who scored against three of Brazil’s group opponents, won the same number of man of the match awards
Morocco (1-1), Haiti (3-0) andScotland (3-0), Vinicius managed to score in every meeting, plus an assist was a bonus Matheus Cunha against the Haitians. Performances that also earned him man of the match honors in every Brazil match in this Group C. World Cup 2026. It is still unknown whether Messi in 2014, Vinicius Jr. will advance with the Brazilian selection to the final stage World Cup This year.