GOAT Greatness: All Of Lionel Messi's World Cup Goals, Ranked

Lionel Messi continues to remind the football world that he's the greatest player of all time, with one GOAT move after another. Now, he's the all-time leading FIFA World Cup goalscorer — and will only extend his mark with every goal. 

Thanks to his hat trick against Algeria, Messi broke multiple records in his first 2026 World Cup match, including equaling Germany's Miroslav Klose for most men’s World Cup goals in history with 16. He also now holds the record for being the youngest and oldest Argentinian to score in the competition, and after the 3-0 win over Algeria, he became the oldest male player to net a hat trick at the World Cup. 

And that was only after his first 2026 World Cup match. 

In his second game this summer, against Austria in the group-stage match, Messi made history again, breaking the tie with Klose and becoming the all-time top scorer in men's World Cup history with 17. And then he kept going.  Shortly before the end of the match, he netted his second goal of the game, bringing his World Cup total to 18 goals and breaking the all-time tie he had with Brazilian women's national team legend Marta (17). 

Messi now stands alone in FIFA World Cup history with 18 tournament goals and 122 overall as Argentina's top scorer.

He has five goals in his first two matches at this edition of the World Cup, and the fact that he’s been doing this for two decades is remarkable. 

There is no doubt that the Argentinian captain, who is playing in a record sixth World Cup alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, will continue to keep opponents up at night. So the only natural thing to do is to not just count his 2026 World Cup goals, but also rank them. 

But it can’t just end there, so allow me to rank all 18 of them. Because every