Messi’s World Cup hat-trick ties all-time goals record as Argentina cruises past Algeria
The 39-year-old scored all three goals in a group-stage win, matching Miroslav Klose's record of 17 World Cup goals and sparking a predictable wave of meme coin activity.
Lionel Messi just reminded the world that age is, in fact, just a number. The 39-year-old scored all three goals in Argentina’s 3-0 victory over Algeria on June 17, tying Miroslav Klose’s all-time World Cup goals record with 17 career strikes in the tournament. It was his first-ever World Cup hat-trick, arriving exactly 20 years after his World Cup debut.
What actually happened on the pitch
Argentina, the defending World Cup champions, dispatched Algeria in what was a group-stage match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. All three goals came from Messi’s boots, giving him 17 World Cup goals across his career. That puts him level with Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who set the record back in 2014. Klose needed 24 matches across four World Cups to reach that number. Messi has been chasing it across five tournaments spanning two decades.
The 20th anniversary detail is almost too cinematic. Messi made his World Cup debut in 2006 as a teenager, and here he is, two decades later, still producing moments that make defenders reconsider their career choices.
The crypto angle you didn’t ask for but definitely exists
No crypto tokens, protocols, or blockchain projects were officially tied to Argentina’s win over Algeria. No fan token issued a special dividend. No prediction market had a particularly notable outcome tied to this specific group-stage fixture. The match lived entirely in the world of sport.
Messi himself has a complicated history with digital assets. His past endorsement deals with fan token platform Socios brought significant attention to the concept of fan engagement tokens. Those tokens, which give holders minor voting rights on club decisions, saw their market boom during the 2022 World Cup before cooling off significantly. The Argentine Football Association’s fan token, ARG, experienced notable volatility during the 2022 tournament cycle.
What this means for investors watching the World Cup cycle
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar coincided with one of the worst crypto bear markets in history. FTX had just collapsed weeks earlier. Fan tokens were trading at a fraction of their peaks.
Fan tokens remain the most direct connection between football and blockchain. If Messi’s heroics spark renewed interest in this category, investors should remember that the last boom-bust cycle in fan tokens was brutal for anyone who bought the top.