After a stunning three-goal opener against Algeria on June 16, 2026, Argentina captain Lionel Messi climbed the ranks of footballers with the most goals scored during FIFA World Cups. He was tied with Germany’s Miroslav Klose after that match. The goal on June 22, 2026, at around the 38-minute mark against Austria, has given him 17 goals, putting him first.

Lionel Messi’s FIFA World Cup debut came in 2006, when he played for Argentina against Serbia and Montenegro at 18. He scored one goal for the team, which won 6-0. Since then, Messi has scored goals in every World Cup except in 2010.

In 2022, he scored a goal at every stage of the tournament — group stage, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinal and the final thriller against France — as Argentina lifted the World Cup trophy for the first time since 1986.

Here is a look at how other players have performed in the competition. Germany’s Klose played in fewer games compared to Messi, even though both of them have scored the same number of goals in their World Cup careers.

While Messi is on top for the number of goals, when calculating goals per 90 minutes of these top scorers, he figures lower down the order. France’s Kylian Mbappe, among Messi’s contemporaries, boasts 1.03 goals per 90 minutes played.

Some of Messi’s goals have come at crucial times for Argentina, ensuring they either emerge as winners, or draw level. The goal against Iran (2014) came in stoppage time of the second half with the score at 0-0. In the same year, his goal against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 65th minute, and the second for the team, turned out to be the winning goal after Bosnia scored one.

Messi’s hat-trick game against Algeria on June 16, 2026, came after some “difficult days” for the captain, leaving him emotional on the pitch. It was later revealed that his father was dealing with health issues.

According to Opta, Messi’s importance for the team has deepened over the years. Messi’s shots and chances created were 45 in 2022, which is over 56% of Argentina’s total shots as a team. This figure has steadily risen over the course of his World Cup participation, with it being as low as 12.1% in 2006. Opta analysis showed that Argentina’s dependence on Messi was comparable to that of another star player — Diego Maradona, Argentina’s former captain and World Cup winner.

Penalty kicks

His ability to ‘curve’ the ball during free kicks deceived opponent players into misjudging its trajectory, making him a master of free kicks and penalty shots. Of seven penalty shots that Messi has taken in World Cups, he has scored in four of them, not including penalty shootouts.

In 2022, he deployed two techniques when shooting in penalty kicks, as per FIFA’s tournament analysis. One was based on reading the goalkeeper’s mind, and the other was based on powerful strikes that reached high speeds.

This year, Messi looks to lead his team to a historic win. If he does, Argentina will become the first country to win the trophy two times in a row since Brazil did it in 1962. Now that Argentina has won against Austria and Algeria in the group stage, it has qualified for the round of 32 matches.

(With inputs from Reuters)