Lionel Messi delivered a historic hat trick for Argentina against Algeria on Tuesday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, overpowering the buzz surrounding Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, who had each scored braces earlier in the day. The piece frames Messi’s performance as a reminder that the World Cup remains his stage, and that football still belongs to him.
The article says Messi waited through nearly a week of tournament action while Mbappe, his former Paris Saint-Germain teammate, and Haaland set the pace, but when his turn came he answered with perfection. Even at 39, he scored his fifth World Cup hat trick, only the fifth in Argentina’s World Cup history, and moved level with Miroslav Klose on the all-time World Cup scoring list.
The context matters, because Argentina entered the tournament burdened by the failures of recent reigning champions and by its own painful recent World Cup openers. In 2018, Argentina drew 1-1 with Iceland, and in Qatar it was shocked by Saudi Arabia after Messi had scored in the first half. This time, he made sure there was no repeat, and Argentina’s first-game win by more than one goal since a 4-0 victory over Greece in 1994 included a famous Gabriel Batistuta hat trick and a Diego Maradona goal.
The article argues that Messi was also responding to doubts about his age and form after leaving Europe for Inter Miami, where he still won a historic title a few months ago. By the end of the night, the piece concludes, Mbappe may soon overtake Klose, but for this match the record belonged to Messi, and it was “the night of number 10.”
