CORNERFLICK
Lionel Messi has ended his World Cup career after the 2026 final, closing a tournament run that stretched across 20 years and left him with a stack of records.
He finishes with 34 World Cup appearances and 21 goals, making him the competition’s second-highest scorer. He also holds the records for most matches played, most wins, most assists and most captaincies.
Messi is the only player to provide an assist at six different World Cup finals and the only one to score in every knockout round of a single edition, doing so in 2022 across the group stage, last 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
Other marks on his tally include nine straight World Cup games with a goal, seven goals from outside the box and strikes against 15 different opponents. He also became the oldest player to score a World Cup hat-trick, doing it at 38 years and 357 days.
Across 2022 and 2026, Messi scored at least seven goals in successive tournaments and finished with 33 goal involvements overall.