The legend Lionel Messi, the captain of the Argentine national team, continued to write history after he officially became the all-time top scorer in the World Cup, and he succeeded in scoring a hat-trick during Argentina’s victory over Algeria in the opening of the teams’ campaign in the 2026 World Cup, raising his tally to 16 goals in the World Cup, and making him equal with the German Miroslav Klose at the top of the rankings of the World Cup’s all-time top scorers.

With this achievement, Messi broke the partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo in the number of hat-tricks scored at the international level, after the duo shared the same number with 10 hat-tricks each.

Messi is now the player with the most hat-tricks in international matches, with 11 hat-tricks, compared to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 10 hat-tricks with the Portugal national team.

Ronaldo has previously scored only one hat-trick in the history of his participation in the World Cup among his eight goals in the tournament, while he has a historic opportunity during the 2026 edition to become the first player to score goals in 6 different versions of the World Cup. (Erm News)