BExhilarated by the next milestone in his incomparable career, Lionel Messi set his sights on further exploits. “What a beautiful way to round off these meetings,” the world star wrote on Instagram on a magical night, “hopefully we can continue to share many moments like this together, may the madness never end!!!”
Messi had just broken the sound barrier of 100 international goals as only the third professional. The 35-year-old captain increased his tally to 102 goals for Argentina in the 7-0 win over the Curacao football midget as part of the celebrations of Qatar’s World Cup triumph. On the pitch, he reacted as usual: while cheering, the “Messiah” pointed both index fingers and his eyes to the sky.
In doing so, he had “immortalized himself in the history of the national team with the force of a hurricane,” as the newspaper La Nacion reverently wrote. “His numbers are hypnotic,” it said, for Messi there are “no limits”. The newspaper Clarin bowed to the “eternal idol”.
In his 174th cap, Messi scored his fastest hat-trick (20th, 33rd, 37th) for the Albiceleste in Santiago del Estero. Only Iran’s Ali Daei (109 goals in 149 international matches) and his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo (122/198) are ahead of him in the top scorer list.
Messi was honored with an oversized plaque by the head of the association, Claudio Tapia, after which it was off to the next lap of honor with teammates and the World Cup trophy. “You can’t describe Messi in words,” said teammate Nicolas Gonzalez, “every time he touches the ball he makes you smile.”
Argentine icon: Lionel Messi immortalized on a banner
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Image: AFP
The local press dissected Messi’s monumental figures with relish. He scored two of the 102 goals with his head, ten with his right foot and 90 with his gifted left foot. He scored 24 times from penalties and ten from free kicks. 13 times each at the World Cup and Copa America, 28 times in qualifiers and 48 times in tests. He scored the most goals in the year of the World Cup triumph in 2022 (18), the fewest in the corona-contaminated 2020 (1). Most often he hit the bottom left (28), only twice half-up in the middle.
“I’m not obsessed with breaking records,” Messi once said. “What I want,” he emphasized, “are titles. I would give up any records for the World Cup and for making my compatriots happy.” But he did that a long time ago.
