Lionel Messi rewrote football history on Tuesday night, scoring his first-ever World Cup hat-trick to equal the all-time tournament goalscoring record as Argentina defeated Algeria 3-0 in their Group J opener at Kansas City Stadium, Missouri. The 38-year-old Argentine captain reached 16 World Cup goals, drawing level with Germany's Miroslav Klose, who set the previous record across four tournaments between 1998 and 2014. It was also Messi's 200th international appearance and his record sixth World Cup — a feat no other outfield player has achieved in the history of the competition.
The evening was laden with symbolism: it fell exactly 20 years to the day since Messi made his World Cup debut as an 18-year-old against Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 tournament in Germany. His path to the record was briefly complicated when a goal in the fourth minute was ruled out for offside, and Algeria's Fares Chaibi also had an early effort disallowed by VAR. Messi broke through in the 17th minute, collecting a perfectly weighted through ball from Rodrigo De Paul before firing a long-range strike that clipped the fingertips of Algerian goalkeeper Luca Zidane — son of French football legend Zinedine Zidane, who was watching from the stands — and into the top corner. Messi added his second in the 60th minute after Zidane fumbled a shot from Alexis Mac Allister, and completed the hat-trick with another powerful strike in the 76th minute, set up by substitute Nico González. He left the field to a standing ovation from a crowd of nearly 70,000, the vast majority wearing Argentine shirts bearing his name. After the match, Messi said the first game of a tournament is always the most difficult and called on everyone to enjoy these historic moments, adding that Argentine fans had once again shown their extraordinary passion for the game.
The performance was rich in records beyond the headline figure. Messi became the oldest player to score a World Cup hat-trick, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo, who achieved the feat against Spain at the 2018 tournament in Russia at age 33. He is now only the second player after Ronaldo to score at five different World Cups, and became the first to score in five consecutive World Cup matches. The result was also Argentina's biggest opening-game victory since their 4-0 win over Greece at the 1994 World Cup on US soil — another match that featured a hat-trick, scored on that occasion by Gabriel Batistuta.
The result matters beyond personal milestones. Argentina, the defending champions who lifted the trophy in Qatar in 2022 after beating France in a dramatic penalty shootout, arrived at this tournament with questions hanging over them. They had not faced European opposition in years until a warm-up win over Iceland last week, and their past two World Cups had begun with shock defeats — to Saudi Arabia in 2022 and, four years earlier, a draw with Iceland. Those doubts were emphatically swept aside. Algeria, appearing at their fourth World Cup — having first qualified in 1982 — failed to register a single shot on target, a first in their tournament history. Argentina's pursuit of a back-to-back title, something no men's team has achieved since Brazil in 1962, is now underway in earnest. They next face Austria on Monday in Arlington, Texas, before completing their group stage against Jordan on June 27.