Lionel Messi found the back of the net in the 16th minute for Argentina, recording what would be his 14th career FIFA World Cup goal. The strike extends an already historic run across five consecutive World Cup tournaments for the player widely considered the greatest of all time.

A career built across five tournaments

Messi entered the 2026 World Cup with 13 goals spread across four previous tournaments. The breakdown tells a story of its own: one goal in 2006 as a teenager, four in 2014 when he dragged Argentina to the final, one in a disappointing 2018 campaign, and seven in 2022 when he finally lifted the trophy in Qatar.

His 13 goals entering the tournament already placed him among the top World Cup scorers in history. The all-time record belongs to Miroslav Klose with 16, scored across four World Cups for Germany.

Argentina’s 2026 World Cup campaign

Argentina has been drawn into Group J of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is being hosted across North America. The tournament’s expanded format, featuring 48 teams for the first time, means more matches and more groups.

For Messi, now playing his club football at Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, this is almost certainly a farewell World Cup. Argentina arrived as defending champions.

What five World Cups worth of goals actually means

Messi’s World Cup scoring trajectory is not what you’d expect. Most forwards peak in their mid-to-late twenties at World Cups. Messi scored more goals at 35 in Qatar than he did at 19, 27, and 31 combined across his first three tournaments.

For the neutral fan, the math is simple. Messi needs three more goals to tie Klose’s record, four to break it outright. He scored seven in a single tournament just four years ago.