Most of the world was cheering for Argentina to win the 2022 World Cup, and that was mostly because of the immense love that fans harbor for the famous soccer star Lionel Messi. After the well-deserved and long-awaited victory of the World Cup, the world’s appreciation and admiration for Messi only increased. It is because of this that the public is honored to celebrate Messi his reaching the brilliant 100th mark when it comes to international goals.
In a 7-0 Argentina-won game against Curaçao, in just the first half of the game, Lionel Messi became the third male player to surpass 100 international goals. This happened at the 20-minute mark of the game, and the cheers of the crowd represented supporters from all over the world.
This historic goal was followed by two more – the second one before halftime – and by the end of the game, Messi had reached the 102-international-goal mark. This made the occasion all the more memorable, given the fact that he did so while scoring a hat trick; a term used for when a player scores three goals in one game.
He did all of this after scoring the 800th goal of his career – the 99th international goal – in a 2-0 win against Panama 5 days before.
Lionel Messi is officially the first South American male player to hit the 100-goal mark, making him the second South American overall behind Brazil’s Marta, who has 109 for the country. And he did so in an amazingly overachieving way:
“The Paris Saint-Germain forward reached the milestone in the 20th minute when he corralled the ball in the middle of the area, cut to his right hit a low shot past keeper Eloy Room. He added to his tally before half-time with another trademark bending strike, then notching a third on the counter-attack to take his total to 102.”
This historically rich game seemed to be a continuation of the celebration of the 2022 World Cup win since while the players wore commemorative jerseys, there was a presentation of a replica trophy. All of this is in front of thousands of adoring fans. And the Argentina coach hopes this is only the beginning: “I hope there will be more, he deserves all the praise, and it’s good that these goals have been on Argentine soil, that has a special value too,”
