Lionel Messi’s 18 World Cup goals, charted from 2006 to 2026 | OneFootball

Lionel Messi scored twice against Austria to become the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer with 18, overtaking Miroslav Klose’s 16 in a 2-0 win. He now has five goals in two matches at the 2026 finals.

L'Équipe charts the timeline of his World Cup goals. He opened his account in 2006 against Serbia and Montenegro in a 6-0 win.

At Brazil 2014 he scored against Bosnia at the Maracanã, then versus Iran in a 1-0 win.

Later in 2014 he hit two against Nigeria in a 3-2 win, the second a free-kick. In 2018 he struck again versus Nigeria in a 2-1 win.

At Qatar 2022 he netted a penalty in the 1-2 loss to Saudi Arabia, then in a 2-0 win over Mexico. He added another against Australia in the last 16, a 2-1 success.

He converted from the spot in the quarter-final against the Netherlands, 2-2 after extra time. Another penalty followed in the semi-final against Croatia, 3-0. In the final with France he opened from the spot and later added Argentina’s third in a 3-3, 4-2 shootout win, taking him to 13 overall and seven in 2022.

In 2026 he scored his 14th in a 3-0 win over Algeria, then a second, before his first World Cup hat-trick against the same opponents to equal Klose on 16. Versus Austria he missed a penalty, then finished left-footed from Facundo Medina’s cut-back in the 38th minute and added another after a series of dribbles at 90+5.

Source: L'Équipe