Tolga Bozoglu / EPA
The French striker scored twice and shone against Senegal (3-1), becoming France’s top scorer in history and surpassing the Argentine star on the list of top scorers in World Cups. Messi responded with a hat-trick and equaled Klose as the top scorer in the history of the World Cup.
The Argentine star Lionel Messi This Tuesday, he equaled the German Miroslav Klose as the best scorer in World Cup historyby achieving an unprecedented hat-trick, against Algeria, in his debut at the 2026 World Cup.
In Kansas City, at a Group J meeting, ‘La Pulga’, pointed out three goalsat 17, 60 and 76 minutes.
With the first, Messi left the Frenchman behind Just Fontaine; with the second, he overtook the German Gerd Müller and French Kylian Mbappéwho had surpassed him during the day by scoring twice against Senegal, also a historic feat for French football (we’ll get to that).
With the third of the night, Messi put himself ahead of the Brazilian Ronaldo, the ‘phenomenon’matching Klose.
With still a quarter of an hour to play, Messi could still isolate himself up front, but, in the 78th minute, Lionel Scaloni did something unusual, replacing him.
On the day he became the first player to play in six World Cups, playing his 27th game, Messi added these three goals to 13 of his first five appearances: one in 2006, none in 2010, four in 2014, one in 2018 and seven in 2022.
Mbappé happy anyway
France, world champion in 2018 and runner-up in 2022, won the World Cup by beating Senegal 3-1, in the first round of Group I.
In East Rutherford, Kylian Mbappé, in the 66th and 90+6 minutes, to go on to score 14 goals in World Cups and 58 for France, advanced the French team and became the best scorer of all time for the French team.
Substitute Bradley Barcola, at 82, scored for the French, while Ibrahim Mbaye, at 90+5, scored for the Senegalese.
In the Group I classification, the French, also champions in 1998, remain, provisionally, isolated in the lead, with three points, before the clash between Norway and Iraq, who face each other in Foxborough.
Here is the updated TOP 20 best World Cup scorers:
| 1st | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 16 |
| 1st | Miroslav Klose | Germany | 16 |
| 3rd | Ronaldo Nazário | Brazil | 15 |
| 4th | Kylian Mbappé | France | 14 |
| 4th | Gerd Müller | RFA / West Germany | 14 |
| 6th | Just Fontaine | France | 13 |
| 7th | Pele | Brazil | 12 |
| 8th | Jürgen Klinsmann | Germany | 11 |
| 8.º | Sándor Kocsis | Hungary | 11 |
| 10. | Grzegorz Lato | Poland | 10 |
| 10th | Thomas Müller | Germany | 10 |
| 10th | Helmut Rahn | RFA / West Germany | 10 |
| 10th | Teófilo Cubillas | Peru | 10 |
| 10th | Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina | 10 |
| 10th | Gary Lineker | England | 10 |
| 16th | Ademir | Brazil | 9 |
| 16th | Uwe Seeler | RFA / West Germany | 9 |
| 16th | Paolo Rossi | Italy | 9 |
| 16th | Jairzinho | Brazil | 9 |
| 16th | Roberto Baggio | Italy | 9 |
| 16th | Vavá | Brazil | 9 |
| 16. | Eusébio | Portugal | 9 |
| 16th | David Villa | Spain | 9 |
| 16th | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | RFA / West Germany | 9 |
| 16th | Christian Vieri | Italy | 9 |
