Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Argentina superstar Lionel Messi has taken his FIFA World Cup goal tally to 19.
Messi scored his 19th goal in Argentina’s final group stage match of the FIFA World Cup against Jordan when he came off the bench and found the net in the 80th minute.
The Inter Miami forward is on a scoring spree, with six goals in the tournament so far. He opened the 2026 World Cup campaign with a hat-trick against Algeria and scored twice against Austria.
Messi had 13 World Cup goals coming into the tournament. He equaled the all-time high World Cup goals record of 16 held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose. Messi then broke Klose’s record during Argentina’s second group-stage match against Austria, where he scored twice to take his tally to 18. He further cemented his record with a goal against Jordan.
With his scoring streak, Messi has also become the first footballer to score in seven consecutive World Cup matches. He scored in his final four matches at the 2022 Qatar World Cup and has now found the net in all three group-stage matches in the 2026 edition.
In 2022, he scored in all four knockout matches—one goal against Australia in the round of 16, one against the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, one against Croatia in the semifinals and two against France in the final.
