Messi surpasses 100 goals for Argentina with hat-trick

Lionel Messi joins Cristiano Ronaldo in the 100 international goals club after netting a first-half hat trick in Argentina’s 7-0 friendly win over Curaçao.

Update: Mar 29th, 2023 02:15 EDT

Argentina superstar Lionel Messi hit yet another landmark with his hat-trick in the first half of La Albiceleste’s friendly match against Curaçao. In his ninth international hat-trick, Messi surpassed 100 international goals in the World Cup winners’ 7-0 beating. He opened the scoring in the 20th minute to reach the milestone, then added two more in the 32nd and 36th minute to bring his total of international goals to 102.

How many players have 100 international goals in men’s soccer?

Messi is just the third male soccer player to ever score 100 international goals. Cristiano Ronaldo remains the king of international goals with a total of 122 for Portugal. The only other player who sits above Messi on the international scoring list is Iran’s Ali Daei with 109.

Rank	Player	Country	International Goals	Appearances
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	122	198
2	Ali Daei	Iran	109	148
3	Lionel Messi	Argentina	102	174
4	Mokhtar Dahari	sia	89	142
5	Sunli Chhetri	India	85	133
6	Ferenc Puskás	Hungary	84	85
7	Ali Mabkhout	nited Arab Emirates	80	109
8	Godfrey Chitalu	Zambia	79	111
T-9	Hussein Saeed	Iraq	78	137
T-9	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	78	140
T-11	Pelé	Brazil	77	92
T-11	Neymar	Brazil	77	124

Messi has scored 48 of his 102 international goals in friendlies, 28 in World Cup qualifiers, 13 in the Copa America, and 13 in the World Cup. His nine hat tricks also fall behind first place hat-trick scorer Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 10 international hat tricks for Portugal. Messi is tied for second with Sweden’s Sven Rydell now that he’s added his ninth.

Most Hat-Tricks In Men’s International Soccer

Rank	Player	Country	Hat Tricks
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	10
T-2	Lionel Messi	Argentina	9
T-2	Sven Rydell	Sweden	9
T-4	Poul Nielsen	Denmark	8
T-4	Ali Daei	Iran	8
6	Pelé	Brazil	7