Just a few months ago, Lionel Messi was celebrating the greatest achievement of his soccer career; winning the World Cup with Argentina. After declaring in December that his time on the national team was not yet up, Messi achieved another milestone for his country during an international friendly matchup against Curaçao on Tuesday night.
Messi scored his 100th, 101st, and 102nd goal for Argentina with a prolific first-half hat trick as part of a 7-0 beatdown of Curaçao.
He was his usual dominant self on Tuesday, scoring the trio of goals within a 17-minute span and assisting on another (to Chelsea star Enzo Fernandez) within that same time frame.
100 GOLS POR SELEÇÃO 🇦🇷🐐pic.twitter.com/bK2LjA2v2e
— Lionel Messi Brasil (@MessiLeoBrasil) March 28, 2023
Messi entered play with 99 goals for his country, already the nation’s all-time leading goal scorer, by a huge margin. He padded his lead over Gabriel Bautista (56) with his first-half hat trick.
Messi got on the scoresheet for the first time on the evening with a strike in the 20th minute, which was assisted by Giovani Lo Celso. He secured the brace 13 minutes later, courtesy of an assist from Nicolas Gonzalez.
Just four minutes after his second goal, Messi found the back of the net for a third time, wrapping up the hat trick in just 37 minutes of game time.
MESSI MESSI MESSI ⚽️⚽️⚽️
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 29, 2023
HAT TRICK HERO 🎩🐐
(Via @Fanatiztv)
pic.twitter.com/yZGVYP0GKu
It was another historic performance for one of the greatest to ever lace up cleats, and even at age 35, the Argentine continues to prove he’s in a class of his own.
