Messi becomes World Cup scoring king as Mbappé, Haaland strike twice

Lionel Messi moved alone to the top of World Cup scoring history with a double against Austria, reaching 16 goals and breaking Miroslav Klose’s long-standing record. The Argentina captain, already the tournament’s most experienced player with 26 appearances, added another layer to a legacy built on durability as much as output.

The significance goes beyond one night in the United States. Messi’s record is now the benchmark for longevity at the World Cup, a mark shaped across multiple tournaments and deep knockout runs, while his latest brace reinforced how late-career production can still redefine the historical order. He entered the tournament as one of Argentina’s central figures in the defense of its world title, and he left the day with the scoring record to himself.

Kylian Mbappé answered in kind for France. The Real Madrid forward scored twice in a 3-1 win over Senegal, taking his international total to 58 goals and moving past Olivier Giroud as France’s all-time leading scorer. FIFA highlighted that Mbappé opened the 2026 campaign with a brace and also recalled the sting of the previous World Cup final, where he finished with a hat-trick that was not enough to win the trophy.

Erling Haaland joined the day’s scoring surge with a brace of his own in Norway’s debut against Iraq. It was Norway’s first World Cup match in 28 years, and Haaland marked the return with the kind of direct, ruthless finishing that has made him one of the sport’s defining forwards. The result gave Norway an immediate reason to believe its campaign can revolve around a single elite scorer.

Taken together, the day drew a clear line between eras. Messi extended the record that defines World Cup greatness over time, Mbappé pushed deeper into France’s record books at only the start of his international prime, and Haaland announced himself on the sport’s biggest stage with his first goals in the competition. FIFA’s presentation of Messi, Mbappé and Haaland as the day’s standout names captured the changing hierarchy of global football: one legend stretching the standard, and two successors pressing hard behind him.