Pure madness! Messi dazzled v Cape Verde, 20 goals, World Cup king | OneFootball

The captain of the Argentina National Team, Lionel Messi, continues to defy the laws of time and expand his legend. With the goal he scored against Cape Verde in the Round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup, the Rosario-born star reached the astonishing mark of 20 goals in World Cups, standing alone as the top scorer in the entire history of the competition.

The historic goal came in the 28th minute of the first half at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. After a precise long pass from Lisandro Martínez, the “No. 10” controlled the ball in the box with a move of the highest quality and finished accurately past goalkeeper Vozinha to open the scoring. The match, which ended in a dramatic 3-2 Argentine victory after extra time, sealed La Albiceleste’s place in the Round of 16, where they will face Egypt.

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A record-shattering machine

At the start of this World Cup edition, Messi shared the top spot in the all-time rankings with Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who had 16 goals. However, the spectacular performance of “La Pulga” in the current tournament — including a hat trick against Algeria, a brace against Austria, a free-kick goal against Jordan, and this latest strike against the African side — brought his tally in this competition to 7 goals, leaving him at the top of both the all-time chart and this edition’s scoring table.

With this goal, the Rosario native not only widened the gap over his historic pursuers, but also set other unprecedented marks in international football:8 consecutive matches scoring: He became the first footballer to score in eight straight matches in World Cup history.

Greatest variety of opponents:

Cape Verde became the fourteenth different national team against whom Messi has scored in a World Cup.

Elite consistency: He is the first player to record 7 or more goals in two different World Cup editions (he scored 7 in Qatar 2022 and has already racked up 7 in the current tournament).

The all-time World Cup standings

After this historic day in the United States, the list of the FIFA tournament’s top scorers stands as follows, according to data compiled by ESPN:

At 39 years old, Lionel Messi’s legacy seems to know no limits. Every time the captain steps onto the pitch, the statistics are rewritten and the gap between him and the rest of the mortals becomes even more unreachable. Argentina remains in the hunt to defend its world title, and its footballing standard-bearer is as relevant as ever.

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