Messi hat – Lionel Messi scored all three as Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 on June 16 at Arrowhead Stadium, delivering a World Cup debut hat trick and adding to his record-setting goal tally across six tournaments.
Lionel Messi didn’t just score. On June 16 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, he stole the spotlight in Argentina’s 2026 World Cup debut by finding the net three times—turning the opener against Algeria into a 3-0 rout and setting the tone for the tournament’s Group J race.
Messi scored all three of Argentina’s goals in the match, a vintage performance that arrives as a major first step toward defending the 2022 title. The hat trick wasn’t a flash in the pan; it reinforced what the numbers have already been building over time.
With the performance, Messi has now notched 16 goals across six World Cup tournaments. That total ties Miroslav Klose of Germany for the most goals scored in the men’s competition. Marta holds the overall record with 17 goals.
The hat trick also joins a short, storied list of World Cup moments—one that’s rare enough to feel historic when it happens.
Here are seven statistics about hat tricks in the men’s World Cup:
There have been 55 hat tricks in total in the men’s World Cup.
In a single tournament, the most hat tricks ever recorded was 8—set in the 1954 tournament in Switzerland.
At the other end of the spectrum, the least hat tricks in a World Cup tournament was 0, which occurred in the 2006 tournament in Germany.
Gabriel “Batigol” Batistuta of Argentina scored a hat trick in two separate World Cups—1994 in the United States and 1998 in France. He is the only player to score three goals in a match in two different World Cups.
Four players have scored a hat trick twice in the World Cup: Gabriel “Batigol” Batistuta of Argentina, Sándor Kocsis of Hungary, Just Fontaine of France, and Gerd Müller of West Germany. No player has scored more than two hat tricks in the men’s World Cup.
Hat tricks sometimes even come from unexpected roles. Laszlo Kiss of Hungary is the only player noted for scoring a hat trick as a substitute, doing so after coming off the bench to contribute to a 10-1 smacking of El Salvador during the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
And when hat tricks land on the biggest stage, they don’t happen often. Two players have scored a hat trick in the men’s World Cup final: Geoff Hurst of England. who was first to notch three goals in the 1966 final (a victory over West Germany). and Kylian Mbappé. who did so in the 2022 final for France in a loss to Argentina.
In the span of one match, Messi added a new chapter to that tight history—three goals against Algeria on June 16 in Kansas City—while pushing the conversation further about where he sits among the sport’s most prolific World Cup scorers.
Argentina now has the opening win it wanted. and Messi has the kind of start that changes expectations for the rest of Group J. Defending a World Cup title begins with details like this—especially when they arrive in a single night. and especially when they come from the same player already rewriting the record books.
Lionel Messi Argentina Algeria 2026 World Cup Group J Arrowhead Stadium hat trick Miroslav Klose Gabriel Batistuta World Cup records
So Messi just… scored all of them? Wild. I thought there would be more highlights than that.
Arrowhead Stadium?? That’s football place lol. Also 3-0 sounds nice but wasn’t Algeria supposed to be better? Maybe Argentina is cheating with some new tactics or whatever.
Wait Klose has the same total as Messi now?? I saw a clip say Messi already broke it though. Idk I just feel like the records change depending on where you look.
Messi hat trick debut and Kansas City again like 2020? not sure why they always pick Arrowhead… anyway if he has 16 goals in 6 tournaments that’s basically like he never stops scoring. But also World Cup hat tricks happened 55 times total so how is that rare like the article says, seems kinda lot to me? Maybe they mean rare for opening matches or idk.