Lionel Messi now has 18 career World Cup goals, and how many World Cup goals does Messi have is no longer a debate after he scored twice in Argentina’s 2-0 win against Austria. He missed a ninth-minute penalty after a video review, then answered with goals in the 38th minute and again in stoppage time.
Messi and Argentina
The first finish gave him 17 World Cup goals and pulled him level with the previous men’s record. The second pushed him to 18 and moved him past Miroslav Klose for the most World Cup goals in the men’s tournament, with the source also treating it as the all-time mark across men’s and women’s play.
Argentina needed both goals. Austria stayed in the game after the penalty miss, but Messi’s finish before halftime changed the shape of the match, and the late strike closed it out at 2-0.
Mbappé, Haaland, and the chase
The rest of the scoring race tightened behind him. Kylian Mbappé scored his 15th and 16th career World Cup goals in France’s 3-0 win against Iraq, which moved him into a tie with Miroslav Klose for second place on the men’s list.
Erling Haaland also added to the chase, scoring four goals in his first World Cup and two more in Norway’s 3-2 win against Senegal. Cristiano Ronaldo, Roberto Martinez, and Fernando Santos sit in the broader backdrop of a tournament where individual scoring milestones are moving fast.
Messi turns 39 tomorrow, while Mbappé is 27, so the record now sits inside a changing race rather than a finished one. Argentina and France both have two wins out of two games and are into the knockout stages, which keeps the pressure on the players still capable of adding to those totals.
For Messi, the margin for error disappeared after the ninth-minute miss. He still left Austria with the record, the tournament lead with five goals, and a number that now gives every remaining scorer a target to chase.
