Lionel Messi Passes 100 Goals for Argentina – We Look Back at His International Career

IMAGO / Sebastian Frej

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Lionel Messi surpassed the 100-goal milestone in worldwide soccer as he netted a hat-trick in Argentina’s 7-0 thrashing of Curacao.

The World Cup-winning captain has now bagged 102 targets in 174 appearances for his nation, which means he finds himself 46 targets away from Gabriel Batistuta in Argentina’s all-time scoring charts.

Messi netted three targets within the area of 17 first-half minutes to achieve the landmark within the early hours of Wednesday morning, notching his seventh worldwide hat-trick within the course of.

The 35-year-old is one among solely three males’s gamers to have scored 100 worldwide targets, becoming a member of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Iran’s Ali Daei within the unique membership.

Messi made his senior worldwide debut again in August 2005, aged simply 18 years, one month and 24 days. Six months later, he scored his first purpose for Argentina, netting in a pleasant towards Croatia.

After scoring twice on the 2007 Copa America, Messi netted hat-tricks towards Switzerland, Brazil and Guatemala earlier than lighting up the 2014 World Cup with 4 targets, though Argentina misplaced to Germany within the remaining.

Messi then scored 5 targets on the 2016 Copa America earlier than notching hat-tricks towards Ecuador and Haiti, with 4 targets and 5 assists coming throughout Argentina’s triumphant 2021 Copa America marketing campaign.

Having bagged one other hat-trick towards Bolivia in 2021, Messi scored 5 targets in a single sport towards Estonia within the lead-up to the 2022 World Cup.

Subsequently, little magician stole the present in Qatar, recording seven targets and three assists on his technique to lifting the trophy, following a dramatic remaining during which he scored twice towards France.

Because the World Cup, Messi has continued to remind everybody of his timeless expertise, netting 4 targets throughout two friendlies to cement his standing amongst worldwide soccer’s elite.

Because it stands, Messi has scored 48 targets in 53 friendlies, 28 in 60 World Cup qualifiers, 13 in 34 Copa American appearances and 13 in 26 World Cup matches.

Not solely has he fired Argentina to World Cup and Copa America glory, however he has additionally claimed two World Cup Golden Balls, two Copa America Finest Participant awards, one Copa America Golden Boot and one World Cup Silver Boot.

After all, we already knew that Messi was among the many biggest gamers in soccer historical past. However his newest achievement of passing 100 worldwide targets additional confirms his legendary standing.