Lionel Messi Shines Again in World Cup Match Against Cape Verde

Lionel Messi is 39 years old, playing in his sixth World Cup, and still bending this tournament to his will.

On a humid Friday in Miami, in the round of 32 against Cape Verde, he needed only 29 minutes to remind everyone why the World Cup still feels like his stage. One long ball dropped out of the Florida sky from Lisandro Martínez. Messi killed it with that familiar velvet left foot, let it settle, then with his second touch rolled the finish home. Simple. Ruthless. Argentina 1, Cape Verde 0.

It was his seventh goal of this World Cup, a number that keeps him alone at the top of the Golden Boot race ahead of France’s Kylian Mbappé and pushes his all-time World Cup tally to a scarcely believable 20. The records keep falling in his wake. The rhythm of his scoring has defined Argentina’s campaign: before this knockout strike, he had already supplied six of their eight goals in the group stage.

This is supposed to be the twilight. It does not look like it.

Messi could have walked away in storybook fashion after delivering Argentina’s third world title. Instead he came back for more, joining Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to appear in six World Cup tournaments. While he spends his club nights with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, he still drags a nation’s expectations with him every time he pulls on that sky-blue and white shirt.

The numbers behind the romance are stark. Coming into the 2026 World Cup, Messi had scored 116 goals in 198 appearances for Argentina. No one in the country’s history has touched that output. No one has matched his 20 World Cup goals either, a mark that sits alone in the record books.

Cape Verde felt the weight of that history in Miami. One lapse, one ball over the top, and Messi punished them. The goal gave Argentina control of the tie and tightened his grip on the tournament’s scoring charts.

If Argentina finish the job in this round, another stage awaits: a date with Egypt on Tuesday, July 7, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, noon ET. A different city, another vast crowd, and yet the same question hanging over the tournament.

How many more moments of World Cup magic does Lionel Messi have left in that left foot?