Lionel Messi proves why he's Greatest of All Time

CHENNAI: For Lionel Messi, the script always writes itself. In his 200th international appearance, and his first at the 2026 World Cup, Messi dusted off all injury concerns, with his first hat-trick at the coveted tournament. Messi’s three-peat also got him closer to breaking the all-time goal scoring record in World Cup history, joining Germany’s Miroslav Klose at the top with 16.

But when asked Messi the question about the records, all he had to say was “I think it doesn’t mean anything, in the end it is statistics and nothing else.” While it is very easy to admit that you are the best player in world football, the 38-year-old time and again let the ball do the talking.

On Wednesday, it was just another day in Messi’s career, where he casually dropped defenders in front of him to pick the same corner that everyone knows but not a lot of goalkeepers seem to know what to do. Messi’s stature as a World Cup superstar was never in question, and after his display against Algeria, one of the stronger teams in Africa, it will never be either.

If anything, the hunger only seems to grow, as despite being 38, the Argentine superstar seems to be involved in a lot of the moves, doing a lot of the pressing, forcing the Algerian defenders into uncomfortable situations. That’s when you instantly know that Messi is locked in, and is ready.

The irony behind all of this isn’t Messi doing Messi things, we all know it was bound to happen at some point but the fact that it was a 38-year-old, who is all but written off plying his trade for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, a competition that no one even rated highly before he joined, makes it special.

That’s the Messi effect. The very fact that 75,000 and more people flocked to watch football on a working day in America, a country that always resisted the sport, is what makes Messi, Messi. Although, on days like Wednesday when he wizards around the pitch almost controlling the defenders as he moves, you feel that magic is real. You feel that there’s a force unexplainable in the atmosphere, where the Argentinian occupies his space.

And then, when you look at the numbers—16 World Cup goals, second man to score in five World Cups, 24 goal contributions in World Cups and more—you wonder if he’s the same person who Argentina, as a country, despised at one point.

That’s Messi, the Greatest of All Time.

List of records that Messi broke during Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria:

-- 16 World Cup goals, joint-most with Germany’s Miroslav Klose
-- Messi’s first World Cup hat-trick, and it comes at the age of 38 years, 357 days, making him the oldest to achieve that feat in the tournament
-- Messi is only second behind Cristiano Ronaldo to score in at least five World Cups
-- Messi becomes the first player to play in 6 different World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026)
-- Messi the first South American to make 200 international appearances (made his debut on August 17, 2005)