Lionel Messi is in elite company…
The 35-year-old Argentine soccer star has became just the third male player to surpass 100 international goals, scoring a hat trick to blow past the century mark in the first half of Argentina‘s friendly with Curacao on Tuesday in Santiago del Estero.
The Paris Saint-Germain forward picked up the ball in the middle of the area, cut to his right hit a low shot past the keeper to hit the remarkable career milestone. He then added to his tally before halftime with another trademark, bending strike, before adding a third on the counter-attack to take his total to 102.
Messi passed the 100-goal mark in his 174th appearance for his country, after netting his 99th international goal — and 800th of his career — in Thursday’s 2-0 win against Panama.
He’s the first South American male player to hit the 100-goal mark and second South American overall behind Brazil’s Marta, who has 109 for country.
The game against Curacao was the second since they lifted the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in December, Argentina’s first world title in 36 years.
Messi remains third on the all-time men’s list of leading international scorers behind Portugal‘s Cristiano Ronaldo, who achieved the century of goals in September of 2020, and now has 120, and Iran‘s Ali Daei, who scored 109 before retiring in 2007.
Almost half (46) of Messi’s goals have come in international friendlies. The former Barcelona forward has scored 28 goals in World Cup qualifiers, including a hat trick in a 3-1 win at Ecuador in October 2017 that secured Argentina passage to the 2018 World Cup.
Messi has scored 13 times in the Copa America and he is the highest goalscorer for Argentina at World Cup competitions, having netted 13 goals in 26 matches spanning five editions, starting in 2006.
A record seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, Messi made his Argentina debut in August 2005 in a 2-1 win at Hungary, a game in which he was sent off after just two minutes. He scored his first international goal a year later in his sixth appearance against Croatia.
He registered a goal and an assist within 13 minutes of his World Cup debut with Argentina at 18-years-old in a 6-0 win over Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 World Cup.
While Messi did not score in the 2021 Copa America final triumph over rivals Brazil at the Maracana stadium, his first major trophy with Argentina.
He netted seven times in the World Cup in Qatar. Two of which came against France in the final.
The Rosario-born player will have an opportunity to add to his goal tally when Argentina host Curacao in a friendly on March 28.
