ON some days, you just have to be thankful. Thankful to Lionel Messi. Thankful for the privilege of watching him for over two decades. Morning, noon or night, you are never far away from a new Messi moment. Even if you have seen moments like those at least 10 other times, there's always something new. A Messi moment is like that favourite bar of ice-cream. So good you can't just have one. Or two. Or 10. You keep going back because... well, woof. It's that good.
In Kansas on Tuesday evening, he provided three more moments of magic to illuminate the global stage yet again.
Many superlatives have been used to describe him. The one word to describe him in the hours after the hat-trick — his first-ever at the World Cup — won't be a superlative. Longevity. For 20 years and six World Cups, his sui generis capacity to excel on the brightest stage has never been in doubt.
In 2006, he became his country's youngest goal-scorer. In 2026, he is now his country's oldest goal-scorer.
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In the hours before the Argentine superstar took to the field, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, two footballers who will challenge all of Messi's goal-scoring exploits in the next decade, had scored braces. A gauntlet was quietly laid down. It may well be the age of Mbappe and Haaland in European club football, but the hierarchy in the international game isn't as linear.
It's what Messi showed with a very Messi kind of hat-trick. For the opening act, he picked up the ball near the centre circle and drove through Algeria's spine. Their defenders were backtracking while the midfielders were already out of the game. Sure, he has lost some pace, but he still retains that ability to make the ball stick to his feet, dribble and make a yard of space for himself.
Here, he had picked up the ball and had a lot of real estate to run into before unleashing that famous left foot of his across the goalkeeper from just beyond the D. Luca Zidane (Zinedine's son) tried his best but couldn't prevent the obvious.
1-0; lift-off.
His second was simpler but still liquid Messi. Alexis Mac Allister's long-range drive was spilled by Zidane back into the danger zone. But Messi anticipated it far quicker than the Algeria defenders. He got to the ball, sat the goal-keeper down before passing the ball into the opposite corner with his right foot.
2-0.
His piece de resistance, bread and butter, completed the hat-trick.
After picking up the ball and moving swiftly through Algerian territory, he used Nicolas Gonzalez who was by himself on the left flank. Even in real time, it was obvious what the next few seconds would bring. Messi paused to compute everything happening around him. That pause also meant an Algerian body was no longer part of his shadow. In that split second, Gonzalez played it back to Messi, who was by now near the edge of the D. There were four players in Algerian green next to him; path to goal so congested a single blanket could have covered all of them. But he's of course so good he only ever needs a yard. End result? A low curler nestling in the left bottom corner.
It was also a milestone moment. A 16th World Cup goal meant he's now level with Miroslav Klose in the all-time charts.
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Over the last few years, the 38-year-old has existed not in front and centre of football's consciousness. Six months after winning the World Cup in Qatar, he moved to the US. A new home. A new league. And away from the flashbulbs of the Champions League and European leagues, competitions that honed and made him for almost two decades.
At Inter Miami in US' south coast, away from the media glare, he has continued to do his thing. Creating assists from nothing, topping goal-scoring charts, winning Cups and individual honours and playing his part in being a football evangelist. Since moving there, he also helped Argentina retain the Copa America in 2024.
So it's not like he has been put out to pasture. He still retains that same dynamism that has enabled him to make multiple minute adjustments to his game over the last two decades. He can still receive and use that small burst of acceleration to power past defenders. His vision is nonpareil. He is still great in and around the box. In other words, he remains a football unicorn.
But watching this stage of late-era Messi comes with the bonus of him knowing that there's no pressure. He needn't try extra hard to shut down the doubters who have questioned his loyalty to the national team in the past. The people who have frequently made noises about his empty Argentina trophy cabinet have long since disappeared.
To be fair, wearing the sky blue did affect him. It was responsible for some of the lowest of lows in his career. It used to be a millstone, a burden; the task of carrying the weight of an entire country's football past, present and future on his shoulders. It's why most games featuring Argentina in the big tournaments were emotionally-charged nerve-shredders. It used to be high on drama, elite football reimagined as a high-wire act.
These days, watching an Argentina game is fun. Stress-free. The air is light, warm and fuzzy. A bunch of friendly uncles back for one last job at winning the thing again after being told they would never win it again.
If in 2022, 25 players wanted to win it for the 26th, their task in 2026 is simpler. Each of them wanting to win it for themselves.
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There's increasingly an argument to be made. Nobody has ever been better at their jobs than Messi has been at football.