Lionel Messi will make his on-field return on Monday (June 22) when Argentina take on Australia in their second game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The Argentina captain scored a memorable hat-trick in their second game of the tournament. His three goals saw his goal-scoring tally surge to 16 in the FIFA World Cup. He shares the top spot with German legend Miroslav Klose and just one more goal will see him become the player with the most goals in FIFA WCs history.
Messi made his FIFA WC debut in 2006 and has been part of every edition of the tournament played since then. In 2022, Messi led frantine defeated France in the final to lift the title.
Messi-led Argentina are aiming to become only the third team in history to retain the trophy. The feat has never been achieved in the 21st century.
While Messi slammed a hat-trick in Argentina’s first game, Cristiano Ronaldo struggled for Portugal and failed to score against DR Congo. He missed few sitters and only had three shots at the goal. Ronaldo also lost possession thrice during the game. Messi-led Argentina top the Group J points table.
Miroslav Klose backed Lionel Messi
Before the start of Argentina’s Cup campaign, Miroslav Klose backed Messi to break his record for the most WC goals. The former German footballer scored 16 goals. “With more teams, there are more matches and therefore more opportunities to score goals. And I expect Argentina and France to go far. That’s perfectly fine, the record will be broken eventually anyway, Messi is welcome to do it. I’m a huge Messi fan, always have been,” Klose told Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“Messi is a genius. And I also have a lot of respect for the Argentinian coach Scaloni. I played with him at Lazio. He showed me around the city a bit back then. We’re good friends,” he added.