Lionel Messi broke down in tears during Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria and admitted afterwards that his emotional moment had nothing to do with the historic night unfolding around him, revealing he had been going through “difficult, complicated days” in his personal life.
Messi scored a sublime hat-trick on his 200th international appearance to move level with Miroslav Klose on 16 World Cup goals — his first treble for his country — yet it was a moment of visible distress rather than joy that defined the most talked-about image of the evening. After opening the scoring after 17 minutes with a curling finish from outside the box, Messi was mobbed by teammates before being spotted wiping away tears in his shirt as play prepared to resume.
Speaking after the match, the former Barcelona star was characteristically understated about the record but unusually candid about the real reason for his tears. “Honestly, completely unrelated to the sport, I went through some difficult, complicated days,” Messi told reporters, according to Metro. He did not elaborate on what those difficulties were but thanked those around him for their support. “I’m grateful to the entire delegation, to my teammates. They were always there for me, as always. They gave me a lot of strength to get through this, and that’s all.”
On the landmark record itself, Messi was typically self-deprecating. “Honestly, it’s an honour to be there because of what it means to be there next to Klose, Ronaldo is there too, but I don’t think it means anything,” he said. “Mbappé is there, he scored two today. It’s a statistic and nothing more. While it’s an honour to be able to compete with all of them, it doesn’t mean anything to me. Ronaldo, from what I saw, was one of the greatest and he’s not in first place, so it all comes down to a statistic.”
Messi’s hat-trick came on a night when the world’s other marquee strikers had also been in prolific form. Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland had both scored braces in earlier matches against Senegal and Iraq respectively, only for Messi to step onto the stage and outshine them both — while carrying a personal weight that his performance gave no hint of until that brief, unguarded moment after his opening goal.
