{"id":914862,"date":"2026-06-23T13:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/history-lionel-messi-becomes-world-cups-all-time-leading-goalscorer-mlssoccer-com\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:13:21","slug":"history-lionel-messi-becomes-world-cups-all-time-leading-goalscorer-mlssoccer-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/history-lionel-messi-becomes-world-cups-all-time-leading-goalscorer-mlssoccer-com\/","title":{"rendered":"HISTORY! Lionel Messi becomes World Cup&#8217;s all-time leading goalscorer | MLSSoccer.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer <\/p>\n<div role=\"main\" id=\"main-content\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-label=\"Page main content\" xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div data-bucket-name=\"main-content-before-middle-adv\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/lionel-messi\/\">Lionel Messi<\/a> now stands alone among the all-time greatest goalscorers at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/\">FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/inter-miami-cf\/\">Inter Miami CF<\/a>&#8216;s legendary No. 10 reached a <strong>tournament record 18 goals<\/strong> on Monday, scoring a brace as defending champions Argentina clinched a Round of 32 berth with a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/2026\/matches\/argvsaut-06-22-2026\/\">2-0 victory<\/a> over Austria.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Messi entered the match with 16 World Cup goals, level with former Germany striker Miroslav Klose following his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/news\/lionel-messi-ties-world-cup-goals-record-with-argentina-hat-trick\">first career World Cup hat trick<\/a> in La Albiceleste&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/2026\/matches\/argvsalg-06-16-2026\/\">3-0 opening win<\/a> over Algeria.<\/p>\n<p>Messi also passed Klose for the most wins in World Cup history (18) with Monday&#8217;s knockout-round-clinching victory.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Records were made for Messi to break them. \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KSwnX32OQO\">pic.twitter.com\/KSwnX32OQO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLS\/status\/2069113676221632518?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><h3><strong>Lionel Messi&#8217;s World Cup goals<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p>At his joint-record sixth World Cup, Messi becomes the competition&#8217;s all-time top goalscorer.<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>June 16, 2006 vs. Serbia and Montenegro: 1 goal<\/li>\n<li>June 15, 2014 vs. Bosnia: 1 goal<\/li>\n<li>June 21, 2014 vs. Iran: 1 goal\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>June 25, 2014 vs. Nigeria: 2 goals\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>June 26, 2018 vs. Nigeria: 1 goal\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>November 22, 2022 vs. Saudi Arabia: 1 goal<\/li>\n<li>November 26, 2022 vs. Mexico: 1 goal\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>December 3, 2022 vs. Australia: 1 goal\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>December 9, 2022 vs. Netherlands: 1 goal\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>December 13, 2022 vs. Croatia: 1 goal\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>December 18, 2022 vs. France: 2 goals\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>June 16, 2026 vs. Algeria: 3 goals<\/li>\n<li>June 22, 2026 vs. Austria: 2 goals<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p>\u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLS\/status\/2069136232005681174?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><h3>Historic goals<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p>Messi&#8217;s history-making goals could have arrived earlier on Monday, but the back-to-back Landon Donovan MLS MVP missed a ninth-minute penalty kick.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He found redemption 29 minutes later, taking advantage of a clever dummy from former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/atlanta-united\">Atlanta United<\/a> midfielder Thiago Almada to give Argentina the lead just before the halftime break.<\/p>\n<p>Two days shy of his 39th birthday, Messi added to his record tally and secured the result in second-half stoppage time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Messi currently leads the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot race with five tallies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">MESSI BRACE. HE\u2019S UNSTOPPABLE. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/REl3HmWwZy\">pic.twitter.com\/REl3HmWwZy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLS\/status\/2069133872470630868?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><h3>World Cup icon<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p>Messi&#8217;s record 18 goals are the latest World Cup milestone for the game&#8217;s most decorated player of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A champion with Argentina at Qatar 2022, the eight-time Ballon d&#8217;Or winner is also the only two-time winner of the World Cup Golden Ball, given to the tournament&#8217;s best overall player.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Messi has scored in six straight World Cup games, equalling the record set by France&#8217;s Just Fontaine (1958) and Brazil&#8217;s Jairzinho (1970).<\/p>\n<p>Messi now has 18g\/8a in 28 World Cup appearances, tied with Diego Maradona for the most World Cup assists, as he looks to guide Argentina to the first back-to-back World Cup titles since Italy (1934, &#8217;38) and Brazil (1958, &#8217;62).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-toggle data-layout-name=\"grid_4-4-4\" data-bucket-name=\"main-content-after-middle-adv\">\n<div>\n<p>Get the latest from MLS: league news, must-see matches, kit drops, premium offers for the World\u2019s biggest event, and more!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/news\/history-lionel-messi-becomes-world-cup-s-all-time-leading-goal-scorer\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a>Tyisha Badon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer Lionel Messi now stands alone among the all-time greatest goalscorers at the FIFA World Cup. Inter Miami CF&#8216;s legendary No. 10 reached a tournament record 18 goals on Monday, scoring a brace as defending champions Argentina clinched a Round of 32 berth with a\u00a02-0 victory over Austria.\u00a0 Messi entered the match with 16 World [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":914863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1130,22672,2005],"tags":[9568,82301],"class_list":["post-914862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-history","category-lionel","category-soccer","tag-history","tag-lionel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}