The Argentine Lionel Messi became the solo record holder of World Cup matches this Sunday, by adding 26, against France, in the final of the 2022 edition, in Lusail, Qatar.
With the title against the Gauls, Messi, who made his World Cup debut in 2006 at the age of 19, already has more than the German Lothar Matthäus, who has led the table since 1998.
The 35-year-old Paris Saint-Germain player makes his debut for the seventh time in Qatar, where he is one of Argentina’s three totalists (570 minutes), along with goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and Benfica center-back Nicolás Otamendi.
In previous editions, the Argentine played three games in 2006 and five in 2010, years in which the ‘albi-celeste’ team fell in the quarterfinals, seven in 2014, in the campaign towards the final, and four in 2018, edition finished for the South Americans in the ‘eighths’.
Messi reaches the final of the 2022 edition with 11 goals, being the best Argentine and sixth in the world ranking, and eight assists, after adding five goals and three assists, both personal highs, in the competition that closes THIS SUNDAY in Qatar.
With the Argentine’s 26th match, Matthäus falls to second place, with 25, two in 1982, seven in 1986 and seven in 1990, editions in which he played the final against Argentina, losing the first (2-3) and winning the second. (1-0), five in 1994 and four in 1998.
The German footballer, born on March 21, 1961, represented the ‘Mannschaft’ on 150 occasions, in which he scored 23 goals, and, in addition to the 1990 world title, the edition in which he was the ‘captain’, won a European Cup (1980).
Another German, striker Miroslav Klose, finished on the podium with 24 games, in which he scored 16 goals, making him the top scorer in World Cup history, while Italian Paolo Maldini is fourth, with 23.
In fifth place is Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese ‘captain’ in Qatar, with 22 games, one more than the German Uwe Seeler, the Pole Wladisaw Zmuda and the Argentine Diego Armando Maradona, whom Messi equaled and surpassed in the 2022 World Cup.
The ninth place is shared, to this day, by six players, joining the French Hugo Lloris, the Pole Lato, the Brazilian Cafu, the Germans Schweinsteiger and Lahm and the Argentine Mascherano, isolating himself as the goalkeeper with the most caps, ahead of him. German Manuel Neuer, who adds 19.
Source: TSF
