Messi chases the double only Pelé ever achieved and could still overtake Maradona
Lionel Messi is on a historic mission. With a hat-trick that drew tears and rewrote the record books, the Argentine star is closing in on a double that, among the greatest names in world football, only Pelé has ever completed. And Maradona, the national idol, may be left behind in this race of numbers.
What is at stake in the records
The benchmark is clear: to be the national team’s top scorer and, at the same time, to win the World Cup. Pelé did it with almost cruel ease in the 1960s and 1970s. Messi already holds the world title, won in Qatar in 2022, and keeps extending his lead as the Albiceleste’s top scorer. Every goal is a verdict in a contest that goes beyond the four lines of the pitch.
Maradona, an inevitable comparison for any Argentine trying to reach sporting eternity, scored 34 times for the national team in 91 matches. Messi has long since left that number far behind. The point now is the symbolic legacy: whoever sits at the top of the most recent hierarchy, the answer becomes less and less controversial.
The performance that reopened the debate
Messi’s most recent hat-trick was not just a sequence of goals. It was a display of his full repertoire. First with composure, then with class, and finally with a finish that seemed to end any discussion about his physical condition or motivation. Thirty-seven years old, yet body and mind still move to the rhythm of someone who still has accounts to settle with history.
Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo had a very different afternoon with Portugal. Without effectiveness, without the impact fans expect, the Portuguese reinforced a contrast that has persisted for months: on one side, Messi on the rise; on the other, CR7 searching for his own reunion with form. It is not decline – it is a window that is narrowing.
The context that magnifies the feat
Argentina does not depend on Messi alone to function. The star himself was emphatic: “We are a wonderful group.” There is substance beyond the individual genius. But it is undeniable that, when he steps onto the pitch in this state, the team operates on another level.
For comparison, Harry Kane also found the net twice for England – the efficiency that remains his trademark. But no individual performance in this round of internationals drew as much attention as that of the Argentine number 10. He is playing like someone who knows time passes, but has not passed yet. And every match like this brings Messi’s name closer to that shelf where, to this day, only Pelé has managed to reach.
