Messi Scored A World Cup Hat-Trick And Is Now Tied For The All-Time Scoring Record

Lionel Messi turned 38 years old during the qualifiers for this tournament.

The conventional wisdom said he would be here to participate rather than dominate, that 2026 would be the valedictory chapter of the greatest international soccer career in history, the farewell tour of a champion who had already won everything, including the one thing he needed most in Qatar four years ago.

He scored a hat-trick on Monday.

Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 in Kansas City in their Group J opener, and Messi put the game away with three goals that Sky Sports described as "epic," his 61st career hat-trick across club and international football and his first ever in a World Cup match.

The performance took his all-time World Cup goal tally to 16, tying Germany's Miroslav Klose for the most goals ever scored in the history of the tournament.

He became the oldest player ever to score multiple goals in a World Cup match, surpassing Roger Milla's record.

He needs one more goal to be alone atop the record books. Argentina play Austria on June 22 in Arlington, Texas.

"It makes me very happy to have lived through everything that came my way," Messi said after the match. "What I'm living through now is the cherry on top."

The Match And The Record It Set

Algeria's goalkeeper for Monday's game was Luca Zidane, son of Zinedine Zidane, which is the kind of detail the World Cup produces for people who have been watching long enough to remember his father doing this to Argentina in 1998.

The younger Zidane made several fine saves across the evening and prevented Argentina from going further ahead than 3-0, which is a reasonable accounting of an impossible situation. Messi was operating at a level that Sky Sports described as "a class above any other to grace a World Cup finals," a statement that would be outrageous if it were not being filed simultaneously with evidence.

The three goals were distinct and deliberate. The first came through the creative movement that has always distinguished Messi from players who are merely fast and strong.

The second was clinical, the kind of finish that ends arguments about whether the position was an accident.

The third, scored in the second half to complete the hat-trick, was the one that the stadium held its breath for and exhaled into noise when it went in.

Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister and Rodrigo De Paul all contributed to an Argentine performance that was complete rather than individual, but the night belonged to one player in the way that his great nights have always belonged entirely to one player.

Argentina's next group game is against Austria on June 22 in Arlington. Klose's record, held since 2014, is one Messi goal away from no longer being Klose's record.