This is what a legend looks like.

When the two best scorers in the world hit braces in their World Cup openers, the ‘Legend’ went one step further. As France forward Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid) and Norway striker Erling Haaland (Manchester City) each scored two, Argentina's Lionel Messi (Inter Miami) showcased his presence with a hat-trick. It took only 80 minutes to prove how a living legend, the ‘God of Football’, rules the World Cup stage and creates history. On the night that was his 200th senior international and the first case in World Cup history of ‘participation in six editions’, Messi embroidered it with the dazzling magic of the first hat-trick of his World Cup career.

Argentina, powered by a one-man show from Messi who scored all three goals, earned a 3-0 victory over Algeria in the Group J opener of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North and Central America at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, United States, on the 17th. With this, Argentina opened the bid for back-to-back titles in confident fashion.

Even before kickoff, global attention zeroed in on the feet of Messi. By stepping onto this stage, he achieved the monumental feat of the ‘six consecutive World Cups’ that no one had reached in football history. Although a recent thigh injury had raised concerns, his class on the pitch made the passage of time seem irrelevant.

Starting up front in a two-man attack, Messi broke the deadlock in the 17th minute of the first half. He took a needle-like forward pass from Rodrigo De Paul, sliced between defenders, and curled in his trademark left-footed shot to shake the Algerian net.

Messi completed a brace in the 60th minute, stretching the gap to two goals. Goalkeeper Luca Zidane stopped a shot from midfielder Alexis Mac Allister but failed to handle it cleanly, and Messi quickly forced in the loose ball. With this goal, at 38 years and 357 days, Messi set the World Cup record as the oldest player to score a brace.

Riding the momentum, Messi completed his hat-trick in the 76th minute. With help from Nicolas Gonzalez, he drove a left-footed shot into the bottom corner to achieve the first World Cup hat-trick of his career.

In his 200th senior international, he also climbed into a tie for first on the all-time World Cup scoring list. Before this match, the sole leader in that category was Miroslav Klose (Germany·16 goals). A three-goal flurry from Messi put him shoulder to shoulder with World Cup legend Klose.

Having drawn level with the record in the very first group match, Messi needs only one more goal at this tournament to rise to the immortal summit as the World Cup all-time leading scorer on his own.

In the 80th minute, as Messi, having completed his mission to perfection, was substituted and left the pitch, tens of thousands of fans who packed Kansas City rose in unison to give a standing ovation and chanted ‘GOAT (the greatest player of all time)’ in tribute. Messi received a perfect 10.0 rating from statistics outlet Sofascore.

On June 16, 2006, twenty years ago, the teenage boy who scored his World Cup debut goal against Serbia and Montenegro, exactly twenty years later, showed a legend's class by writing the story of the oldest hat-trick.