The Argentine icon shattered the men’s all-time World Cup scoring record against Austria — cementing a legacy that will outlast the tournament itself.
Lionel Messi wrote his name into footballing immortality on Monday evening when, in the 38th minute of Argentina’s Group J clash against Austria at Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas, he swept home his team’s opening goal — his 17th of all time at the FIFA World Cup — surpassing Miroslav Klose’s long-standing record. He wasn’t finished. Messi added a second late on in a commanding 2-0 victory, finishing the night with 18 career World Cup goals and a record that may well stand for generations.
The 38-year-old had entered Matchday 2 already sharing the record with Klose, having fired a hat-trick in Argentina’s 3-0 opening win over Algeria on June 16 to draw level on 16. He now has 121 international goals across 201 appearances for his country — numbers as extraordinary as the stage he continues to illuminate. Playing at his sixth and likely final World Cup, Messi is also only the third player in history to score in six successive tournaments for his nation.
“If anyone thought this group was better off without Leo, today it became clear that Leo is the most important of them all.” — Alexis Mac Allister, Argentina midfielder, after the Algeria match (Al Jazeera/AFP, June 16, 2026)
The record-breaking night carried an extra emotional charge. Messi had been visibly moved after scoring against Algeria — it later emerged that his father has been dealing with an unspecified health issue — and he missed a penalty earlier in the Austria match before producing the decisive contributions that counted. His resilience has come to define the tournament’s opening act: despite a hamstring scare in the build-up and uncertainty over whether he would commit to playing at all, Messi has shown precisely why Argentina’s title defence revolves around him.
Elsewhere in the Golden Boot race, France’s Kylian Mbappé has moved to 16 World Cup goals — equalling Klose for second on the all-time list — after scoring twice against Iraq. The 27-year-old also earned his 100th cap for Les Bleus in the same match, becoming France’s youngest player to reach that milestone. With Mbappé eleven years Messi’s junior and with at least two more World Cups plausibly ahead of him, the baton for future record-chasing appears to be firmly in his hands. For now, though, the record belongs to the man who already changed football forever.
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