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Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé are vying to become not just 2026 World Cup winners but also the greatest goalscorers in the history of the tournament. Here’s how they compare with others on the all-time listLionel Messi started his 2026 World Cup campaign with a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Algeria.The trio of strikes gave him a career total of 16 World Cup goals, equalling the existing record held by Miroslav Klose. It’s reasonable to expect the Inter Miami player to set a new mark this summer but he is being chased hard by Kylian Mbappé. He scored twice in France’s opening match victory against Senegal, giving him a total of 14 goals since his competition debut eight years ago.The list shows the top 20 World Cup goalscorers of all time, from data provided by Transfermarkt. If two players are tied, advantage is given to the man who made fewer appearances. England supporters will be hoping Harry Kane swiftly joins our list by adding to his eight goals.

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A hat-trick against Algeria equalled Miroslav Klose’s World Cup scoring record, but Messi and his teammates insist the mark doesn’t matter to himLong after the dust had settled on Argentina’s 3-0 group-stage victory over Algeria on Tuesday night, Algeria and Bayern Munich midfielder Ibrahim Maza wearily emerged from behind a curtain and stepped up to the microphone.Maza had played well, even assisting on Algeria’s disallowed first goal. He’d also had a front row seat to a Lionel Messi masterclass, just a few yards away from Argentina’s captain when he scored his third goal of the evening and tied Miroslav Klose as the World Cup’s all-time leading goalscorer. In short order, he was asked to expand on what made Messi unplayable on Tuesday evening.“Messi things,” Maza said, a smile creeping across his face. “I don’t think I need to explain to you [what that means]. I think you just have to watch the game and then you’ll know what I mean by Messi things. He can decide the game on his own, as we saw today.”Messi did indeed decide the game on his own on Tuesday, scoring a trio of clinically-taken goals to bury Algeria and push Argentina to the brink of the knockout round.He did so 20 years to the day after scoring his first World Cup goal for Argentina. It feels sometimes like Messi is ageless, but rolling the tape on that strike – which came in Argentina’s 2006 group stage opener against Serbia and Montenegro – reveals a mop-headed teenager with alien-like speed and reflexes. He blurs across the area and smashes a finish across the face of goal, announcing his presence on the world stage.He became Argentina’s youngest-ever World Cup goalscorer that day and on Tuesday he became their oldest, eclipsing former Argentina great Martin Palermo’s record by over two full years. Messi moves slower now and undoubtedly enjoys the space he’s frequently given by defenders who fear humiliation at his hands. Twenty years on, Messi lacks a little pace but his mind is as sharp as ever, as is his ability to find space where there isn’t any to be found. He remains awe-inspiring.Not long after Maza slipped back through the curtain and headed towards the team bus, Messi himself emerged, smiling and clutching a Michelob Ultra “Superior Player of the Match” trophy, probably the least important silverware he’s ever touched.Messi, of course, is famously competitive and frequently minimizes these types of individual accomplishments, something he did on Tuesday.“Honestly [the record doesn’t matter],” he told a gaggle of reporters. “It’s an honor to be there, for what it means to be next to Klose, [Brazilian] Ronaldo is also there. [Kylian] Mbappé too, he scored twice today. At the end of the day it’s just a statistic and nothing more. ”It’s easy to question the veracity of Messi’s feelings, of course. He is relentlessly competitive, sometimes to the point of pettiness. The mere mention of Mbappé’s goals, scored hours earlier, and of the other participants on the list, demonstrates his interest.Messi’s Argentina and Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, who assisted on Messi’s first goal on Tuesday, laughed when he was asked about Messi’s record.“I swear he doesn’t care. Sometimes we’ll be in a room drinking mate and we’ll tell him ‘hey man, you’re just one away or two away’ or whatever. And I swear he has no idea. I don’t know how that works.”Messi left Tuesday’s match after 80 minutes to a thunderous ovation. The nearly 70,000 in attendance chanted his name, while Messi raised his arms in acknowledgement. His head coach, Lionel Scaloni, met him at the touchline. He was visibly emotional, holding back tears as he eventually sat down on the bench next to Messi. It was not the only time that emotion got the best of him. He welled up after Messi’s third goal, and again on the field as Argentine supporters serenaded their team after the match.“There are no words; anything I say would be superfluous,” Scaloni said after the match. “It’s what he’s been doing for 20 years, it’s what the people of this sport want to see.”“He’s an animal,” added De Paul. “What makes me the happiest is that I feel like he’s enjoying it. That he doesn’t feel the weight of the pressure that he felt for so long. Everyone knows his mentality. He doesn’t let himself enjoy things much because he’s always focused in helping us and the team. But I see him good now, I see him happy. That’s contagious among the group.”Messi’s happiness was easy enough to see on Tuesday night. He beamed after every goal, celebrating much like the 19-year-old who found the back of the net for the first time 20 years ago. He lingered on the pitch after the final whistle, waving at fans and embracing his teammates. He had a warm smile on his face even as he walked towards the team bus, in the wee hours of the morning.

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Those in attendance at Argentina’s opening match against Algeria could be forgiven, for a moment, for thinking they were at one of the great Argentinian cathedrals of football – La Bombonera, or maybe the national stadium, El Monumental. Kansas City Stadium, awash in the colors of the Albiceleste, roared with the sound of nearly 70,000 Argentine supporters serenading their team, and their hero, in rapturous song on Tuesday night.Argentina rose to the occasion, and so did Lionel Messi, who in his 200th cap took another step towards solidifying his place as the greatest footballer in the history of the sport, scoring three splendid goals and tying Germany’s Miroslav Klose for the all-time goal scoring mark in World Cup play (16), the performance coming just hours after France’s Kylian Mbappé leapfrogged him, with 14.The Inter Miami midfielder also became the first male player to appear at six World Cups, a record that feels certain to be equalled by Cristiano Ronaldo when Portugal begin play. Messi had been recovering from a muscle injury in recent weeks but any doubt surrounding the Argentinian captain’s status was quickly wiped away when he was named to Lionel Scaloni’s starting XI, and those doubts were ancient history once the match began.Messi had very nearly nabbed Argentina’s opener just five minutes in when a through-ball found him at the near side of the box. His shot was perfectly placed, but assistant referee Tomasz Listkiewicz correctly flagged him offside by the smallest margin. Not two minutes later, Algeria winger Farès Chaïbi had an equally clinical finish waved off after finding himself offside by a similarly narrow margin.Messi wasted little time putting Argentina ahead, finding the back of the net in the 17th minute. His Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul found Messi 40 yards out, after which the former Barcelona star turned and took three touches towards goal. With no defenders in sight, his driven shot from the edge of the area was too powerful for Algeria keeper Luca Zidane, glancing off his fingertips and into goal.The one negative mark on an otherwise brilliant performance came in the first half, with Messi fortunate to escape without punishment after a rash challenge in which he raked his cleats across the back of Algerian defender Aïssa Mandi’s calf. The Argentinian likely deserved a yellow, and potentially even a red. He received neither, and the play was not reviewed on the field.Messi’s second goal of the night was even more easily taken than his first. Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister’s speculative effort from 30 yards was pushed away by Zidane directly into the path of Messi, who coolly slotted it home from close range in the 60th minute. Again, Algeria’s backline was nowhere to be found. Argentina, on the other hand, were excellent defensively throughout the entire match.The Argentinian legend completed his hat-trick in the 76th minute with a vintage finish, threading his strike through a trio of defenders and just out of reach of Zidane. He left the match minutes later.Both fanbases have been well-represented for days in Kansas City and nearby Lawrence, Kansas, where Algeria will be based for the entirety of their tournament. Thousands of Argentinian supporters packed a local park on Monday night for a banderazo, singing, chanting and dancing into the wee hours. The party moved Tuesday evening to the stadium, which was full of noise hours ahead of kickoff.Algeria’s supporters have been the subject of a remarkable story in Lawrence, where residents have welcomed them with open arms. Though understandably outnumbered by opposing fans, loud, vibrant pockets of green emerged from Argentina’s blue-and-white at times, urging the underdogs on.The 28th-ranked Algerians will have hoped for a happier return to the World Cup after a 12-year absence, having been revitalized under head coach Vladimir Petković. Algeria earned a reputation during qualifying for their high-energy approach, glimpses of which were present on Tuesday, particularly in the closing moments of the first half. Despite some promising exchanges, they were undone by poor finishing and never looked particularly competitive.Algeria’s encounter with Jordan now has the makings of a must-win; they feel much more evenly matched with Austria.Scaloni had tempered expectations out of Tuesday’s match in the lead-up, going as far on Monday as to say that a win against the Desert Foxes was far from necessary. Scaloni should know; he was at the helm in 2022 when Argentina narrowly lost in their group stage opener to Saudi Arabia, among the most shocking results in World Cup history.Expectations aside, Scaloni will surely be pleased with three points, which bring Argentina towards the precipice of the last 32. They’ll meet Austria in Arlington, Texas, on Monday. Messi, as is his custom, will be expected to make even more history there.

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Argentinian’s legacy has no need for another World Cup but return allows hosts to witness his international curtain callIt’s a moment more iconic than any other in the 30-year history of Major League Soccer. Lionel Messi, then 36, standing over a free kick 30 yards from goal, days after completing a shock move to the United States. On that night in the summer of 2023, deep into the dying moments of his US debut, Inter Miami were in need of a miracle.With one brilliant stroke of his left foot, Messi delivered. His game-winning free kick, placed just out of reach of the opposing goalkeeper, was a work of art. It rolled back the years, reminiscent of the brilliance that had by then already solidified his stature as the greatest player in the history of the sport. Those in attendance who weren’t screaming were simply wide-eyed and slack jawed, in disbelief at what they’d seen.To many who were there that night, Messi’s mere presence in Major League Soccer was more surreal than what they’d just witnessed. The Argentina legend was of course a staple in the US by 2023 but he’d largely been kept at arm’s length. He was readily available on television, his genius almost always narrated by Ray Hudson’s hyperbolic prose, and Americans would occasionally visit with Messi in person as well, almost always in the form of a meaningless summer friendly every year or two.Now in the twilight of his career, Messi had shirked other leagues and offers and had come to the US to retire. What has followed has been a complicated yet unquestionably successful two-and-a-half years, with Miami winning their first league championship and solidifying themselves as the standard-bearers in MLS.A funny thing also happened along the way.When Messi joined up with Miami, he was months removed from his crowning achievement – winning the 2022 World Cup – and he’d suggested repeatedly that the tournament would be his final one. Up until that point, the only true, meaningful moment of Messi’s international career Americans had witnessed in person had been his brief retirement from the national team after the 2016 Copa América Centenario, when a tearful Messi broke down to the media after losing the final.Messi, of course, did return to the Albiceleste and offered Americans another chance to watch his magic on the international stage during the 2024 Copa América, which he won. Despite some frustrations, he also enjoyed his club football at Miami and his everyday life in the US tremendously. Slowly, it began to feel more and more possible he’d feature in his sixth World Cup this summer, and American fans began to realize they’d get an entirely unexpected chance to watch the diminutive forward’s international curtain call in person.Messi follows in the footsteps of Pelé, who came to the US in the mid-70s, and David Beckham, who did so three decades later. Unlike those two, Messi only ever came here to play football, not to proselytize the game to the American masses. He’s expanded his commercial footprint here, certainly, but Messi never needed to conquer American club soccer to do so. His face and name alone would have sufficed. His presence here at times feels more like a gift than anything else.Argentina are favored by few to repeat as champions this year, often thrown behind Spain, France and even England, at times, as contenders. He is approaching Miroslav Klose’s all-time World Cup goals record of 16 (Messi has 13) and could log his 200th international cap during the tournament. The appeal of watching Messi win another World Cup feels undeniable. It has little to do with his legacy. Any suggestion that Messi needs to win another title to solidify that feels genuinely farcical.He does feel well equipped to perform this summer, in no small part because his time in MLS has already exposed him to many of the stadiums he’ll play in and, more importantly, because he’s already grown accustomed to the absurdities of traveling thousands of miles between matches, as is frequently the case in the American top flight. He has been at ease in the US, telling reporters last week he is “savoring every moment” of his swan song with Argentina as the end approaches.The US is savoring every moment of Messi’s North American curtain call as well.Messi, put simply, is in extra time at this point, and winning another championship would only solidify his legend. Entirely unburdened, the Argentinian is playing his final World Cup free from the expectations that come with being a precocious wunderkind, in competition for the best player in the world, or a legend of the game looking for one last piece to balance his trophy cabinet. That sort of freedom can liberate and empower a player, but players of Messi’s ilk often need those expectations to continue to perform.How Messi responds this summer remains to be seen, but we will get our first glimpse at him on Tuesday evening in Kansas City, as his US denouement continues.