India, June 23 -- Kylian Mbappe's rise has turned one of football's great nostalgia debates into a serious statistical argument. With his latest World Cup goals, Mbappe has moved past Ronaldo Nazario's tally of 15 and reached 16, the same figure Miroslav Klose made famous as the benchmark for World Cup scoring. On numbers alone, the Frenchman is already in rare territory. He is a World Cup winner, a World Cup finalist, a Golden Boot winner, and the only player to score four goals in World Cup finals.

But comparing Mbappe, Ronaldo, and Klose solely by World Cup goals is too narrow. The sharper question is not who has the best tournament tally, but who was the better striker. That changes the shape of the debate.

Miroslav Klose's greatnes...