Lionel Messi became the first player in FIFA World Cup history to score in six consecutive knockout-stage matches, a streak spanning the 2022 and 2026 tournaments. He’s also netted goals in nine straight World Cup games overall.

The record, confirmed by Opta, covers knockout goals against Australia, the Netherlands, Croatia, and France during the 2022 cycle, plus at least two more in the 2026 bracket against Cape Verde and Egypt. At 39 years old (or close to it), Messi is doing things no one his age, or any age, has done on this stage.

Messi’s total World Cup goal haul now sits at 21 across 31 career matches in the tournament. That number surpasses marks previously held by legends like Just Fontaine and Jairzinho. For context, Fontaine scored 13 goals in a single World Cup in 1958, a record that still stands for one tournament.

Argentina entered the 2026 tournament as defending champions after their dramatic 2022 victory in Qatar, where Messi was the undisputed driving force. His continued production in elimination matches has been central to their title defense campaign.

Rewind to 2021 and 2022, and Messi’s name was practically synonymous with the sports-crypto crossover narrative. His move to Paris Saint-Germain included fan tokens as part of his welcome package. He appeared in promotions for Socios-linked fan tokens.

His most significant individual achievement of 2026 has not a single crypto token, NFT project, or blockchain initiative attached to the coverage. The reporting around this record is, as the research notes, “purely football-centric without any crossover into digital currencies.”

PSG’s fan token ($PSG), which saw elevated trading volumes during Messi’s tenure at the club, has faded from mainstream sports conversation. The entire fan token vertical, which once promised to revolutionize how supporters engaged with their clubs, has settled into a much quieter existence.

The most famous athlete on the planet just did something literally unprecedented, and the crypto market didn’t even flinch. No fan token pump. No commemorative NFT drop trending on social media. No blockchain-based prediction market spiking around his goal-scoring odds.