Messi makes history: now the all-time top scorer at World Cups
A brace against Austria, Klose's record overtaken, and Argentina through to the last 16. At 38, he's still writing chapters.
Some players win records; others just seem to belong with them. Lionel Messi did it again, scoring both goals in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Austria in Dallas (FIFA’s official match report has the lot) and becoming the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history.
The numbers are tidy and a little jaw-dropping. Monday’s brace took Messi to 18 goals at World Cups, two clear of Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who’d held the record since 2014. He’d already matched the mark with a hat-trick on opening night against Algeria. One more evening was all it took to make it his.
How it unfolded
It didn’t all go smoothly. Messi missed a first-half penalty — the kind that can rattle a player. He answered in style: a gorgeous finish before the break broke the game open, and another deep in second-half stoppage time sealed it. Holders Argentina stroll into the round of 16.
This is his sixth World Cup, the first back in 2006. At 38, and most likely at his last World Cup, the Argentine looks in no mood to be remembered for missing chances, and the run eventually put him in a Golden Boot race with Mbappé.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Hossein Zohrevand / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
