Kylian Mbappe's night promised so much but ended with the worst way to win the Golden Boot.
The Frenchman will leave the tournament as the tournament's top scorer after scoring three goals in a World Cup final, but his main memory will be the painful loss.
At the end of a truly epic evening, the 23-year-old still got to walk up to the victory podium to collect his individual accolade, but there were times when a far greater prize was within his grasp.
This could have been his last tournament, but instead he will be remembered as a member of the team that won the World Cup in Russia four years ago.
It was Argentina and Lionel Messi who won the title, but it felt like this was the time for Kylian Mbappe to shine.
It got off to a bad start for 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe, who is trying to become the youngest player to win a second World Cup.
He was mostly a bystander as Argentina dominated the first half, managing only 11 touches in total, as his struggling side fell two goals behind and things did not improve after the break.
It took until the 71st minute for Mbappe to have his first shot at goal, but the ball sailed high over the bar.
Kylian Mbappe made no mistake from the spot when Nicolas Otamendi was called for a foul as he darted into thebox.
He made it 2-2 just 97 seconds later when he met a dropping ball in the box with a superb volley to bring his side back from the verge of defeat.
"You can't question the quality of one of the biggest players in the world to get his country back into the game," said the co-commentator.
He's a really great guy. He was sitting. His team weren't with him but the changes made them believe in the side.
The magic continued. A crowd who by now could barely believe what they were watching, arrived when he despatched another penalty in extra time, again to rescue his team and force a shootout, this time in front of a crowd who by now could barely believe what they were watching.
The camera cut to the French President. The boy is a ruler. The penalty in the World Cup final was cool. He stuck it in the same spot.
It was the Argentina goalkeeper who was celebrating at the end of the game after denying Aurelien Tchouameni and Kingsley Coman from scoring in the shoot out.
Despite this being a final few will forget, Kylian Mbappe was still France's hero in defeat, and he was embraced by his team-mates and also by the president at the end.
Alan Shearer said it was a pleasure to watch it. Thanks to Messi andMbappe. Argentina had a mentality. Thank you for the entertainment. It was simply amazing.
France's World Cup defence ended in defeat on penalties, but for most of the game it seemed as if they would be giving up their trophy without so much as a whimper.
Before the half-time break, the Les Bleus boss tried to change that by moving Kylian Mbappe into a more central role.
Deschamps said it was tactical because he saw the lack of energy in the group. I just saw that they weren't 100%. I brought Kylian in because I could see we were in trouble.
We were not in tip top shape. We needed to go back to drawing board and try to change something, even though we didn't have that much extra.
Everything is possible, you can change in a blink of an eye, and we did that. It wasn't enough for us to come back from the dead.
Kylian left his mark on the final but it wasn't in the way he wanted.
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