Lionel Messi moved level with Miroslav Klose at the top of the World Cup’s all-time scoring chart after scoring his first hat-trick in the tournament against Algeria. With all 48 teams now through one of their three group matches, that milestone is the loudest answer yet to who’s winning the World Cup discussion.
Messi’s surge matters because the first week has already produced the kind of performances that start to shape a rankings table. He is approaching his 39th birthday on Wednesday, which only sharpens the scale of what he has just done: he did not simply add to his total, he drew alongside the player who had stood alone at the summit for years.
The early ordering also reflects how the rest of the opening round has landed. Harry Kane scored twice in England’s 4-2 win over Croatia, Michael Olise created France’s opener against Senegal with the pass of the tournament so far, and Kylian Mbappe finished that move before adding a second late on. Joshua Kimmich had two assists as Germany ran riot against Curacao, while Daniel Munoz flicked home Colombia’s opener after a pass from James.
There is still a reason the picture feels unsettled. Brazil’s opening game was described as downright worrying, even with Vinicius Junior producing a brilliant solo equaliser against Morocco, which is exactly the kind of contradiction that keeps a rankings model honest. A side can look fragile and still have a player doing something extraordinary inside it.
That is where the next checkpoint matters. The Athletic’s ratings model is heavily weighting what happened in matchday one, but every team still has two group games left, and the players who looked untouchable after the first week will have to keep doing it when the field has had time to adjust. Messi has the record share for now. The next matches will decide whether he keeps the lead, or whether the opening week becomes the high-water mark that everyone else spends the rest of the tournament chasing.
