He began the tournament in tears, then rewrote history within minutes of stepping onto the pitch. After his first goal, Leo Messi could not hide his emotions, and he explained why simply and directly once the match was over. "Why did I cry? It was something completely unrelated to football," Messi said afterwards. Then he went back out and tore Algeria apart on his own. At 38, he scored the first World Cup hat-trick of his career, and Argentina opened the defence of their title with a 3-0 win.
This was no ordinary evening. The meeting with Algeria was Messi's 200th cap for the national team, and he officially became the first male footballer to appear at six different World Cups. His three goals carried his World Cup tally to 16, drawing him level with Germany's Miroslav Klose as the tournament's all-time leading scorer and pushing Brazil's Ronaldo, on 15, into third. He is now also the oldest player in World Cup history to register a hat-trick, a record he prised away from Cristiano Ronaldo.
Plenty of questions had hung over him beforehand. Only last month, playing for his club Inter Miami, he was withdrawn early with a muscle problem, and his fitness was openly in doubt. The answer, in the end, was up on the scoreboard. A hat-trick from a 38-year-old on the opening day of a World Cup was the perfect reply to everyone who had rushed to write him off. Tellingly, he meets the records with his usual calm, calling it an honour to be measured against legends while insisting it means little to him personally.
Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland each grabbed a brace on the same night, yet the Argentine remained the headline act. The hat-trick landed exactly 20 years to the day after he scored his very first World Cup goal back in 2006.
Austria are next. A man who opens a tournament with a tearful breakdown and a hat-trick leaves no questions behind him. He has already proved everything. Now we are simply watching to see how much further he can go.
