Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick against Algeria in his 200th Argentina appearance, equalling Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 World Cup goals and becomin…
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1/10Messi Equals Klose: Lionel Messi scored his first World Cup hat-trick on Tuesday to equal Germany’s Miroslav Klose’s men’s all-time record of 16 tournament goals, as Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 in Kansas City. The goals — his 118th, 119th, and 120th for Argentina — came in Messi’s 200th international appearance and at his record sixth World Cup. He was substituted in the 78th minute, to a standing ovation from a crowd of 69,045, before he could break the record outright.
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2/10Six Cups, 200 Caps: The match fell exactly 20 years to the day since Messi made his World Cup debut against Serbia and Montenegro on June 16, 2006 — in which he also scored — making him Argentina’s youngest World Cup scorer at 18. On Tuesday, the 38-year-old became the oldest World Cup hat-trick scorer, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo, who set the previous mark at 33 years and 130 days with a hat-trick against Spain in 2018. Messi is one of only three men to reach 200 international caps, alongside Ronaldo and Kuwait’s Bader Al-Mutawa.
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3/10First Man, Six Tournaments: Messi became the first man to appear in six World Cup tournaments, a record Ronaldo can equal if he features for Portugal against DR Congo on Wednesday. Messi and Ronaldo are also the only men to have scored in five different World Cup editions. Tuesday’s hat-trick extended Messi’s record as the first player to score in five consecutive World Cup matches, with the Algeria game being only his first of the 2026 edition.
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4/10Mbappe Passed, Then Passed Again: Earlier on Tuesday, France’s Kylian Mbappé scored twice against Senegal in a 3-1 win to reach 14 World Cup goals, moving past Messi’s previous tally of 13 and into third place all-time alongside Germany’s Gerd Müller. Messi’s hat-trick later that evening took him to 16, leapfrogging Mbappé and Brazil’s Ronaldo (15) to draw level with Klose at the top of the all-time list. Both Messi and Mbappé now stand within striking distance of the outright record.
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5/10Goals That Counted: Messi had a goal ruled out for offside in the fourth minute, as did Algeria’s Farès Chaïbi. He scored for real in the 17th minute, curling a left-footed strike from outside the penalty area past goalkeeper Luca Zidane — son of French legend Zinedine Zidane — after a through ball from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul. Algeria pushed back before half-time, with goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez forced to parry a shot from Chaïbi, but Argentina went in ahead.
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6/10Second, Then Third: Messi added his second goal in the 60th minute, tapping in a rebound after Zidane failed to hold an Alexis Mac Allister strike. He completed his hat-trick in the 76th minute with a curling left-footed finish, set up by substitute Nico Gonzalez. The third goal drew Messi level with Klose’s record of 16. It was also the 61st hat-trick of his career, his 11th for Argentina, and the first of the 2026 World Cup — the previous six hat-tricks of the tournament had all been braces.
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7/10Messi’s Record Night: Tuesday marked several personal records for Messi in one match. He became Argentina’s oldest World Cup scorer, 20 years after becoming their youngest. He became the first player to score in five World Cup editions consecutively. He surpassed Pelé’s record of 21 World Cup goal contributions, reaching 24, per ESPN. He was also the first man to play in six World Cups. Coach Lionel Scaloni, who was a substitute in the same 2006 match where Messi debuted, said: “I don’t have the words to describe Messi. For 20 years, he’s had us used to seeing things like this.”
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8/10Messi On the Night: “My tears after the first goal? I’ve had some tough days. It wasn’t related to football. And those feelings were because of that,” Messi said after the match, without elaborating. He added that starting a World Cup with a win in the first game is never easy and credited his teammates and coaching staff. Messi had been managing a minor hamstring issue at Inter Miami before the tournament, but played 20 minutes against Iceland in a tune-up last week and scored from the penalty spot.
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9/10What’s Next for Argentina: Argentina face Austria on Monday in Dallas before closing their Group J campaign against Jordan on June 27. Should they progress and win the title, Argentina would become only the third team in history to win back-to-back World Cups, after Italy (1934, 1938) and Brazil (1958, 1962). Should Messi captain them to that title, he would become the first Argentine captain to achieve the feat — one Diego Maradona reached the final for in 1990 but ultimately could not claim.
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10/10Klose’s Record, Messi’s Next: Messi needs just one more goal to break Klose’s record outright, a mark the German striker set across four World Cups between 2002 and 2014. With Argentina’s next match five days away and at least two more group games to go, the record is a matter of when, not if, barring injury. Algeria coach Vladimir Petkovic summed up the night plainly: “Class is permanent. He’s fortunate to have the privilege that the entire Argentina team works for him, and for decades now he’s done incredible things.”
