Lionel Messi faces the opportunity to surpass the record number of matches and goals in the World Cup for Argentina when participating in the fifth tournament in Qatar this month.

Messi will be the captain and conductor of Argentina’s play at the 2022 World Cup – the World Cup that he announced is the last of his career.
Messi will be the captain and conductor of Argentina’s play at the 2022 World Cup – the World Cup that he announced is the last of his career.
Argentina will play the opening match of Group C of the 2022 World Cup against Saudi Arabia on November 22. This is almost certainly Lionel Messi’s 20th match at the biggest football festival on the planet, just one match less than Diego Maradona’s record. If he plays all three group stage matches, Messi will set a new record for Argentine football.

Also having 19 World Cup matches like Messi is Javier Mascherano, who retired at the end of 2020. In the past, Maradona attended four World Cups, in which he played all 14 matches of the 1986 and 1990 tournaments. In 1994, Maradona was banned from playing against Bulgaria in the final round of the group stage because of using banned substances. Argentina lost this match and then lost to Romania in the round of 16.

Maradona scored eight goals across four World Cups, two goals shy of the best performance by an Argentine player, which belongs to Gabriel Batistuta. Messi currently has six goals and needs five more goals to set a new record for tango football. Four of Messi’s six goals came in the 2014 World Cup, where he led Argentina to the final.

Messi holds the two most important records of the Argentina team: number of matches played (164) and number of goals (90). He has served Argentina for 17 years, the same amount of time as Javier Zanetti and more than any other Argentine player.

Messi is playing well at both club and national team levels. He scored four goals for Argentina in an international friendly at the end of September and is one of the best attacking players in Europe currently, with 12 goals and 14 assists in 18 matches for PSG. The 2022 World Cup will be the last World Cup in Messi’s career, according to his assertion on October 7.

Besides Saudi Arabia, Argentina also meets Mexico and Poland in Group C of the 2022 World Cup. “La Albiceleste” is on its way to seek the third world championship in history, after the 1978 and 1986 periods.