Argentina's all-time top scorers list | OneFootball

After making his historic and definitive farewell to the Albiceleste official through an emotional letter on his social media, LIONEL MESSI brought his golden era to a close as the absolute master of Argentina’s all-time scoring chart. The captain said goodbye at the top with 125 goals, after shining with eight goals scored at the 2026 World Cup.

In this way, the Rosario native finished with more than double the tally of his closest pursuer. In the top seven places, behind the Rosario superstar, are: Gabriel Batistuta (54), Sergio Agüero (42), Lautaro Martínez (42), Hernán Crespo (35), Diego Maradona (32), Gonzalo Higuaín (31) and Ángel Di María (30).

In addition, with the penalty he converted in the pre-World Cup friendly against Iceland, Lionel Messi outright reached another historic milestone in national football by becoming the oldest player to score a goal wearing the Argentina national team shirt. The Rosario-born forward took the field at 38 years, 11 months and 14 days old, breaking a longevity record that belonged to one of the sport’s great icons.

Until this match, the historic record had been held by legendary River Plate forward Ángel Amadeo Labruna, who had scored his last international goal on July 7, 1957 against Brazil at the Maracanã, at the age of 38 years, 9 months and 8 days. The Argentine captain had already been closing in on that mark since March 31, when he scored against Zambia at La Bombonera at 38 years, 9 months and 7 days old, finishing just one match short of El Feo’s mark.

Meanwhile, against Algeria, in addition to extending his longevity record, he became the oldest Argentine to score at a World Cup at 38 years, 11 months and 21 days old. He comfortably surpassed Martín Palermo, since the “Titán” had held that mark at 36 years, 7 months and 15 days since his goal against Greece at South Africa 2010.

For his part, La Pulga is the top scorer in the history of the World Cup qualifiers with 36 goals, seven more than Uruguayan Luis Suárez. Also, in the opening match of the 2026 edition against Ecuador, he became the first footballer to score in 5 different editions in the history of the CONMEBOL competition, a mark later matched by Arturo Vidal.

Scored in the most World Cup qualifying campaigns with Argentina

Lionel Messi (5) 4 in 2010, 10 in 2014, 7 in 2018, 7 in 2022 and 8 in 2026

Hernán Crespo (3) 3 in 1998, 9 in 2002 and 7 in 2006

Gabriel Batistuta (3) 3 in 1994, 3 in 1998, 5 in 2002

Juan Pablo Sorín (3) 1 in 1998, 2 in 2002, 2 in 2006.

Gonzalo Higuain (3) 1 in 2010, 9 in 2014, 1 in 2018

Ángel Di María (3) 3 in 2014, 2 in 2018 and 3 in 2022

NOTE 1: Daniel Passarella scored 23 goals for the national team. Many media outlets do not count the goal against Germany (2-1 at the 1981 Mundialito in Uruguay) and consider it an own goal by the defender who tried to clear his header off the line.

NOTE 2: Ángel Di María was not the scorer of the goal against Paraguay in the qualifiers on 9/7/2012 at the Mario Kempes. His shot deflected off Ezequiel Lavezzi’s back, making Lavezzi the scorer.

NOTE 3: Gonzalo Higuaín did not score the goal against Sweden in 2013. After receiving the ball from Di María, Pipa struck a shot that was not on target and it ended up going in after a rebound off Mikael Lustig. Own goal.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.