At 38, Messi Just Had the Greatest Opening World Cup Game of His Career
The doubters had questions. Lionel Messi answered all of them in 76 minutes.
A week shy of his 39th birthday, with a hamstring injury still fresh in people's minds, Messi stepped onto the field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on June 16 and delivered the most record-laden performance of his already impossibly decorated career. A hat trick. A 3-0 win over Algeria. And a tie for the all-time men's World Cup goal-scoring record — with more games still to come.
The Match
Argentina opened the defense of its 2022 World Cup title with a dominant performance, with Messi doing what he has always done at the tournament: made the game look easy when it mattered most.
His first goal — slotted home in the fourth minute — was ruled out for offside, a brief pause in what was otherwise an unstoppable night. At the 17-minute mark, a trademark mazy run culminated in a driven left-footed shot that Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane — son of French legend Zinedine Zidane — couldn't handle. Messi added his second in the 60th minute and completed the hat trick in the 76th before being substituted to a standing ovation from a capacity crowd of nearly 70,000. Even Messi seemed reluctant to leave.
"It makes me very happy to have lived through everything that came my way," he said after the match. "What I'm living through now is the cherry on top. I'm very happy and grateful for this wonderful group."
The Records That Fell in One Night
The hat trick was Messi's first in World Cup history — his 11th in international competition overall and the 61st of his career. But the records didn't stop there.
By scoring three goals, Messi moved to 16 World Cup goals, tying Germany's Miroslav Klose for the all-time men's record. The record appears likely to fall in the coming weeks, with Argentina still to play Austria and Jordan in the group stage before the knockout rounds begin.
The night against Algeria also marked Messi's 200th international appearance — making him only the third player in history to reach that milestone, after Cristiano Ronaldo and Kuwait's Bader Al-Mutawa. It was also his record sixth World Cup appearance, making him the first man ever to play in six tournaments. At 38 years and 357 days old at the time of his second goal, he became the oldest player to score multiple goals in a single World Cup match, surpassing Cameroon's Roger Milla, who achieved the feat at 38 years and 34 days in 1990.
The timing of the hat trick carried its own poetry. It came exactly 20 years to the day that Messi made his World Cup debut — and scored his first World Cup goal — against Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. He is now both the youngest and the oldest Argentine ever to score at the tournament.
The Messi-Ronaldo Contrast
The night was made even more striking by what was happening simultaneously across the World Cup. Earlier that same day, France's Kylian Mbappé scored twice against Senegal to reach 14 World Cup goals — only to watch Messi immediately leapfrog him to 16 that evening. Erling Haaland also scored twice for Norway against Iraq.
The following day, Cristiano Ronaldo — playing in what is also expected to be his final World Cup — drew 1-1 with DR Congo while missing two clear chances to win the game. The contrast with his great rival's opener could not have been starker. Messi has 16 World Cup goals. Ronaldo has eight. Messi already has a World Cup title. Ronaldo does not.
Since turning 30, Messi has scored more World Cup goals than Ronaldo has managed in his entire career.
One Record Still Within Reach
With Klose's record of 16 now tied, the record is Messi's to break at any point during the tournament. Argentina's next group game is against Austria on Monday, with a final group stage match against Jordan to follow. The knockout rounds likely await beyond that.
At 38, playing in his final World Cup, Messi has now scored in five consecutive World Cup games. The only thing standing between him and sole possession of the greatest scoring record in the sport's biggest tournament is time — and time has not yet caught up with him.
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