Lionel Messi scored his first World Cup hat-trick as Argentina defeated Algeria 3-0 in Kansas City, tying Miroslav Klose as the tournament’s all-time leading scorer.
Lionel Messi scores his first World Cup hat-trick (Image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
America is now all too familiar with Lionel Messi, with the playmaker approaching his third year at Inter Miami, but there was still something special about this occasion in Kansas City.
Messi is celebrating his 39th birthday and there is no doubt that this will be his sixth and final World Cup. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner is the first player to appear in six tournaments and shows no signs of slowing down.
In his 200th appearance for Argentina, Messi put on a show against Algeria. He scored his 118th, 119th and 120th goals for his country – his first World Cup hat-trick, taking his tally to 16 World Cup goals, surpassing Brazilian great Ronaldo and equaling German striker Miroslav Klose’s 16 goals as the tournament’s all-time leading scorer.
Kylian Mbappé may have something to say about that, scoring twice in France’s 3-1 win over Senegal and scoring 14 points himself, but he’s still far from Messi’s level in this game.
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Cristiano Ronaldo will take part in the sixth World Cup alongside his long-time rivals when Portugal take on the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday. However, given that he has scored just eight goals in the World Cup, it will take some effort to keep pace with the Argentine mastermind, who also scored two goals in the match and Erling Haaland added one more to become the top scorer of the 2026 tournament and write the biggest story of the World Cup to date, becoming the oldest player to score twice in a World Cup.
Lionel Scaloni deserves a lot of credit for setting up the team to compliment Messi, who is key without negatively impacting the team. The defending champions did their part as FIFA president Gianni Infantino looked on.
Messi’s longevity is shown not only by his amazing and unparalleled statistics, but also by the goalkeepers he twice beat. Luca Zidane is the son of Zinedine Zidane, with whom Messi faced on the pitch and in the dugout in El Clasico as a manager.
Lionel Messi is the oldest player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup (Image: Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images)
The 28-year-old goalkeeper certainly gave the great man a helping hand. He was unable to stop a 25-yard attack and tucked it into the top corner to make it 1-0. And he also deflected Alexis Mac Allister’s long-range shot into the path of Messi for a casual rebound tap-in.
The third was a textbook Messi, receiving the ball on the edge of the box, wriggling into space and finishing low into the bottom corner. A few minutes later, Scaloni moved to protect the talisman and left the pitch to a standing ovation.
Based on this evidence, Klose will be overshadowed for the foreseeable future. And while Mbappe is likely to rise to the top of the list in due course given that he is only 27 years old, Messi used this tournament to further establish himself as the undisputed greatest player of all time.
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