24/06/2026

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WEDNESDAY • 24th JUNE 2026

p 26 From Narey to Neymar

El Tri face desperate rivals

p 27

Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring Argentina’s second goal in the World Cup Group J victory over Austria at Dallas Stadium in Texas yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

p 28 'Let's be realistic'

p 29 ‘A long night’

GOAT Argentine

Historic moment sheds light on a vital quality after Messi breaks WC goals record against Austria

L IONEL MESSI added to his legacy yesterday by scoring his record-breaking 17th career World Cup goal in the first half before adding his 18th in second-half stoppage time of Argentina’s 2-0 win over Austria in Arlington, Texas. The 17th goal broke a tie with Germany’s Miroslav Klose. The 18th briefly put him four in front of Kylian Mbappe, the next-closest active player – only for the French star to score a brace later yesterday against Iraq to match Klose’s 16. “Well, I’m very happy because of this victory,” Messi said immediately after the match through an inter preter. “This was a very important and tough victory. We worked very hard on it. And that reassures us for what’s coming next. “So this is a World Cup. All of the matches are very intense, and all of the teams play well. And we’re happy because we have six points and we’re qualified.” Messi, who turns 39 today, has scored 11 of his historic total of 18 goals since turning 35. His total from the last two World Cups alone would be tied for seventh on the tournament’s all-time scoring list. Messi scored his record-setting goal on a first-touch left-footed strike from just inside the 18-yard box in the 38th minute off an assist from Facundo Medina.

He completed his brace five minutes into added time, clean ing up his own rebound follow ing a surging counterattack and firing low through traffic. That gave him a two-goal lead over Canada’s Jonathan David and Germany’s Deniz Undav in the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot race. Asked for his favorite World Cup goal of his career, Messi could not pinpoint one. “I don’t remember, really,” he said. “I’m tired. I don’t have a lot of strength and it’s hard to think for me right now. So I’m just enjoying this moment and I want to join my colleagues.” Messi, who became one of the first two players to appear in six World Cups

maybe had I done that, I wouldn’t have scored the others. You never know. But I’m happy about the results because of our participation and the teamwork. Well, let’s hope it will even go better.” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni, Messi’s teammate at the 2006 World Cup, has built an ecosystem around Messi to allow his captain to do his thing. That means letting others do the running around him. Not that Messi is totally exempt from the dirty work. “Today, when the team was struggling without possession, he put in the work,” said Scaloni. “You could see his commitment, that speaks volumes about him.” Renowned Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, who wrote an authoritative biography of Messi, said before the World Cup that this version of the player was “very dif ferent” to the one that burst onto

the scene with Barcelona in the early 2000s. “Messi has rein vented himself at least five times to evolve into the

match.

With the goal, Messi also tied a different World

player he is now for Argentina and Inter Miami,” Balague wrote in a col umn for the BBC . “He has adapted so he can dominate and stay ahead of a game that has always been chasing him,” he added. He noted how Pablo Aimar, Messi’s childhood idol, once said: “The last Messi is always the best Messi.” That version is a player that walks more than he runs, said Balague, but “still sees everything first”. “Critics once used this (lack of running) against him. Now it reads as mastery,” he wrote. “He is reading the game, con serving energy for the moments that matter.” – Field Level Media/AFP

Cup record, scoring in his sixth straight match dating back to the 2022 World Cup which Argentina won. He’s just the third player to score in six straight World Cup matches alongside France’s Just Fontaine and Brazil’s Jairzinho. He appeared destined to break the record approximately 30 min utes earlier when Lautaro Martinez was tackled in the box and Argentina was awarded a penalty kick. However, Messi missed the ensuing penalty kick wide of the right post in the ninth minute. “I had the penalty that I could have scored,” Messi said. “Well,

last week alongside Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, entered this summer’s event three goals behind Klose.

Behind his first career World Cup hattrick in the

Group

J opener vs Algeria on June 17,

he pulled even entering the sec ond group-stage

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