Lionel Messi has gone past Kylian Mbappe in the race for all-time top scorer in the World Cups after his latest goals against Algeria.

The Argentina star is playing in their World Cup 2026 opener against Algeria and has made a spectacular start to the campaign.

He has already netted a brace against the African opponents as the defending champions lead 2-0 in the Group I encounter.

Messi scored a stunning curler in the first half to give his team the lead. A left-footed strike arrowed into the corner of the net, leaving Luca Zidane not much to do. In the second half, he has found the net again, this time a simple tap-in. He scored again in the 76th minute to complete a hat-trick, thus equalling the world record.

Messi, who is playing his 200th match for Argentina, has now scored 120 international goals. More significantly, Messi now has 16 goals in the World Cup, as he surpassed France’s Kylian Mbappe.

Lionel Messi joint Top in All-Time List

Lionel Messi is now joint first with Germany’s Miroslav Klose in all-time World Cup goal-scoring list with 16 goals to their names. Messi has also played 27 World Cup matches, the most by anyone in the world.

Earlier, Kylian Mbappe also scored two goals in France’s 3-1 win over Senegal, thus taking his tally to 14 goals in World Cups in 15 appearances.