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Lionel Messi scored his seventh international hat-trick as Argentina thrashed Curacao 7-0 in a home friendly. As sensational as that sounds, the hat-trick wasn't the most sensational feat; the real deal was Messi passing the 100 international goals mark; now with 102 international goals. He is now the third player in history to achieve that feat. The first two are Cristiano Ronaldo with 122 goals and Iran's Ali Daei with 109 goals. Messi is the first South American male player to hit the 100 international goals mark. Brazil's Marta holds the record for females with 109 international goals. It only took Messi one half to net all three goals at the Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades. His first came from a Giovani Lo Celso assist, in the 20th minute; Messi's second was scored 13 minutes later, assisted by Fiorentina's Nicolas Gonzalez. Argentina's second goal was scored by Gonzalez. Lo Celso once more gave Messi a pass for his third goal. Messi also set up Enzo Fern...

35-year-old PSG/Argentina Lionel Messi was crowned 2022 Best FIFA Men's Player at the Best FIFA Football Awards 2022 ceremony held in Paris on Monday, February 27. This is the second time Messi is winning the award since its inception in 2016, and now joins Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski as two-time winners. French duo Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema came second and third respectively. Mbappe for his World Cup heroics being top scorer and first person to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final since Sir Geoff Hurst; Benzema thanks to his key role in guiding Real Madrid to Champions League victory. Messi won the award thanks to his Qatar World Cup glory, in addition to scoring 18 goals and recording six assists on international level. On receiving the award, he said: “I’d like to express thanks to my team-mates, to Scaloni [Argentina coach] and without them I wouldn’t be here. My coach, he is part of this victory as well. I’d like to pay tribute to all of my team-mates. I...

PSG was able to come back from an early lead by Toulouse in a Saturday League fixture thanks to a Hakimi equalizer and a Lionel Messi lead. Branco van den Boomen scored the opener for mid-table Toulouse in the 20th minute, then Achraf Hakimi drew PSG level before half-time. Neymar and Mbappe were absent due to their injuries. Messi later gave PSG the lead with a left-footed strike around the hour mark. Mbappe will miss PSG's next game in the Coupe de France next week, and the Champions League last-16 first leg against Bayern Munich on February 14th after being ruled out for three weeks with a thigh injury suffered in the 3-1 win at Montpellier on Wednesday. Achraf Hakimi was the player of the match - scoring one, setting up another goal, and still keeping the Toulouse attack at bay.

Argentina have history with a historic, dramatic third World Cup crown (1978, 1986, 2022) - their first in 36 years. They beat reigning champions France in the FIFA World Cup final after extra time and penalties. France were completely subdued by Argentina in the first half during which Argentina scored two goals - Messi scored the first for Argentina in the 23rd minute from the penalty spot, and Angel Di Maria netted Argentina's second in the 36th minute. France came alive in the 80th minute of play with Kylian Mbappe converting from the penalty spot and scoring another in the 81st. The game went into extra time, with France seeming thirsty for another goal. Messi stepped up for Argentina and scored another goal in the 109th minute. Drama ensued as France was awarded a penalty, which Mbappe converted in the 118th minute to make the game level on 3-3.  Coming to the penalty shootout, Messi and Mbappe took the first for their respective teams, which they both netted. Penalty shoot-o...

Two-time world champions Argentina are en route to their sixth final in World Cup history, and this is largely thanks to Lionel Messi's excellence and Julian Alvarez's decisiveness in front of goal. Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 to reach their second World Cup final in eight years. Messi put Argentina on the path to victory in the 34th minute  with a perfectly struck penalty, and brilliantly created Argentina's third goal. Julian Alvarez scored Argentina's second goal of the night by taking Messi's header  just inside Croatian territory and embarking on a slaloming run and into the Livakovic's net. Messi's assist for Alvarez's second goal was superb; he twisted and turned past Croatia defender Josko Gvardiol in an eye-catching move before putting it on a plate for Alvarez to score . For the fourth time in this FIFA World Cup, Messi has been named Man of the Match, a feat achieved by no other player in the current World Cup tournament. He has scored goals in...

Argentina have made it through to the quarterfinals of the FIFA 2022 World Cup in a 2-1 win over Australia in the round of 16, to a greater extent thanks to a top notch performance from their captain and talisman Lionel Messi. Argentina struggled in the first thirty-five minutes of the Argentina vs Australia eight finals, with Messi quickly surrounded by the Socceroos every time he had the ball on his feet. However, Messi managed to keep Argentina's World Cup trophy alive in his 100th game as Argentina captain and 1,000th appearance in professional football with a much needed goal. A goal that happened to be Messi's first in the knockout stage of a World Cup. Messi is now only one goal shy of Gabriel Batistuta's record of 10 World Cup goals. Messi's performance was truly outstanding, as he completed 90% of his passes, created four chances and had nine touches in the opposition area. This has been rated Messi's best game so far in this World Cup. Messi is now t...

Argentina came into their second World Cup group fixture knowing a win was the only guarantee to keep alive their hopes of progressing past the group stage after their shocking 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia in their first fixture. Lionel Messi kept he and Argentina's dream of winning the World Cup with a 2-0 victory over Mexico at the Lusail stadium. Messi scored for Argentina in the 64th minute, from outside the box giving Argentina much needed hope to carry on.  "That's what they came for," Peter Drury said after Messi's goal. " The Magic Man !' One more Messi moment and Argentina are alive."  Enzo Fernandez further cemented Argentina's lead with a curling right-foot shot from a Messi assist in the 87th minute.  Messi has now equaled Diego Maradona's Argentina record of 21 matches and eight goals at the World Cup.  Messi has won all but one title in his career, and that is the World Cup. He came closest to winning it in 2014 when Argentina pla...

On Saturday, November 19 2022, football fans worldwide were blown away by a photo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing chess.  Both Messi and Ronaldo took to Instagram to share the picture, which sees the legendary duo playing chess on Louis Vuitton briefcases. Messi equally shared the picture on his Facebook page. The picture went viral pretty fast on Instagram, racking up more than 10 million likes across Ronaldo and Messi's accounts in just over 30 minutes. Both players captioned the photo "Victory is a State of Mind." The picture was taken by the famous photographer Annie Leibovitz as an ad campaign for Louis Vuitton. Fans have long longed to see the duo play together. There's a possibility that Ronaldo and Messi face each other in the Qatar World Cup. Argentina plays its first match in the tournament against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, and Portugal against Ghana on Thursday. In his explosive interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV,  Ronaldo talked abou...

On Wednesday October 5, PSG faced Benfica in a Champions League fixture and had to settle for a draw due to an own goal by midfielder Danilo Pereira who turned an Enzo Fernandez cross into his own net. Messi gave PSG the lead in the 22nd minute with a curling shot from an interplay with Neymar and Mbappe. Messi has now scored against 40 different opponents in the Champions League - Benfica being the 40th. Neymar's spectacular overhead kick in the 49th minute saw him hit the woodwork, and later attempted a free kick that was saved by Benfica keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos. PSG lead in their group, on seven points with second-placed Benfica, Juventus is third and Maccabi Haifa last. Maccabi Haifa suffered another defeat in their third Champions League fixture for the season. PSG and Benfica meet again in Paris next week.

Argentina have extended their remarkable unbeaten streak in their penultimate World Cup warmup game to 35 matches over 3 years, with a 3-0 win over Jamaica on Tuesday night. Messi who was twice accosted by fans for signatures and selfies scored twice after Julian Alvarez's opener for Argentina in the 13th minute. Messi was brought in from the bench in the 55th minute of play and he went on to score in the 86th minute after a give-and-go with Giovani Lo Celso. A few minutes later, he scored another on free kick after being fouled by Adrian Mariappa just outside the penalty area. Messi has now scored 90 goals in 164 international appearances. “You have to enjoy Messi,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “No matter your country, everyone does. I’m his coach, but I would buy a ticket to see him. “There are no words to describe what he is,” Álvarez said. “Playing five, 10 minutes or all the match, he manages to do amazing things.” Argentina play their ultimate pre-World Cup fr...

Sunday's Ligue 1 fixture between Lyon and PSG saw PSG triumph thanks to a Lionel Messi goal. Messi found the back of the net in the fifth minute of the game, thanks to a Neymar assist. With this goal, Lionel Messi now overtakes Cristiano Ronaldo as the player with the most non-penalty goals, despite having played 150 games less. Messi has now scored 672 non-penalty goals, and Cristiano Ronaldo, 671. Earlier this week, the Argentinian forward achieved another feat when he became the first player to score in 18 consecutive Champions League seasons, once more overtaking Cristiano Ronaldo. However, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more goals in total - 699 goals in 941 games in all competitions for four different clubs, while Messi has scored 688 goals in 822 games in all competitions for two clubs - Barcelona and PSG.

Lionel Messi was in scintillating form at the Finalissima - a contest between the champions of Europe and the champions of South America - as Argentina comfortably beat Italy 3 - 0. Messi, Di Mari and Matrtinez were a constant menace to the Italian defense with the seamless interplay. Messi's eye-catching dplay featured two assist, the first for Lautaro Martinez, who provided an assist for Argentina's second goal through Di Maria, and his second for substitute Paulo Dybala who scored Argentina's third goal in injury time. Since June 2019, Argentina are unbeaten in 32 matches, having won their first Copa America since 1993, qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar, and now, winning the Finalissima. Messi was thrown into the air by his jubilant teammates once the final whistle was blown. After the game, Messi said: "Today was a nice test because Italy are a great team. We knew it was going to be a nice game and a nice setting in which to be champions. "It was a b...

A hat-trick of hat-tricks was the result produced by a scintillating Messi-Mbappe-Neymar trio versus Clermont on Saturday. Neymar and Mbappe each netted three times, with a trio of assists from Messi to achieve a 6-1 victory versus Clermont.  Messi's first assist came from the edge of the penalty area as he made a pass to Neymar who went on to score and give PSG a 1-0 lead. Messi leads the leagues with assists this season, with a total of 13 assists to his name. After the game, Mbappe told Canal Plus France: "The connection on the field with Messi and Neymar, it's a shame it's only happening now."

Argentina captain Lionel Messi who scored in Friday' 3-0 win over Venezuela says 'many things will change' after the winter World Cup in Qatar. The PSG/Argentina forward turns 35 in June. The scorers in the Argentina vs Venezuela encounter were Nico Gonzalez, Angel di Maria and Lionel Messi respectively. He said: "I don't know what I will do after the World Cup. I am thinking about what is coming. After Qatar, I will have to reassess many things." He also made it clear that his doubts had nothing to do with his past frustrations playing for Argentina. "It has been a while that I am happy here, since before winning the Copa. I am thankful for all this they make me feel every time I come to Argentina," Messi said. He was asked about continuing with the national team after Qatar, and said: "I don't know, the truth is I don't know. "I think about that is coming, which is close, Ecuador (on Tuesday). The preparation matches in Ju...

Former Inter Milan striker Antonio Cassano recently revealed that five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo sent him a WhatsApp message after the Italian claimed Lionel Messi is superior to him. The former Roma player revealed the contents of Ronaldo's alleged texts during an interview on Bobo TV. “Cristiano wrote to me on WhatsApp asking for more respect after everything he’s won, all the goals he’s scored and for what he represents,” Cassano said. “I’m not afraid to tell the truth, I’ll face the whole world, from the Pope to the last person on earth. I told Cristiano Ronaldo that it’s not disrespect to say that only one Ronaldo exists and it’s the Fenomeno, and that Messi is much better than him. That’s not disrespect. “I was telling the truth, facts, that Messi is much better than him and there’s only one Ronaldo. I called Gigi Buffon and asked him if he had given my number to someone. He confirmed that he gave my number to the press officer [at  Juventus ] and he g...

Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d'Or for a record seventh time, beating Robert Lewandowski and Jorginho to lift football's most prestigious trophy once more. His previous wins came in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019 - he had already won the trophy more times than any other player.  The 34-year-old was pivotal in Argentina's success - winning the Copa America - his first international honor, scoring 40 goals in 2021 - 28 for Barcelona, four for PSG and eight for Argentina.  Messi said: “It is incredible to be here again. Two years ago I thought that it was my last year and now I am here again. I am very happy, very excited and wanting to fight for new challenges. “I do not know how long I have left but I hope it will be a long time. I want to thank my teammates from Barcelona and PSG, and especially the Argentina team. I won this award and I had the feeling that I was missing something and this year I was able to achieve it. ...

Lionel Messi may have had a poor start to the season, but he's making records as usual. He is the first player to provide a hat-trick of assists in a single Ligue 1 game this season. He achieved this feat as PSG overturned an early deficit to beat 10-man Saint-Etienne 3-1 away in Ligue 1 on Sunday. Messi provided assists for Marquinhos's two headers and a clinical pass for Angel di Maria's goal. Strangely enough, it is Saint Etienne that opened scoring through Denis Bouanga in the first half. The long-awaited debut of former Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos also came to pass as he finally made a full recovery from injury. Nemar on the other hand, was stretchered off the pitch, sobbing in agony, due to an ankle injury. "Right now there's nothing to say. There's pain. He's going to have tests on Monday to find out a bit more about his injury," said Pochettino. "That's life," Neymar said on Instagram. "I'll be back better and s...

Ligue 1 leaders PSG comfortably beat Nantes on Saturday night 3-1, with Messi scoring his first goal in the French top flight at the Parc des Princes. Kylian Mbappe was first to etch his name onto the scoresheet after deflecting Leandro Paredes' shot into the net barely two minutes into the game. Nantes however equalized 20 minutes into the game with a goal from Randal Kolo Muani. Dennis Appiah gave PSG the lead once more by scoring an own goal against Nantes in the 81st minute. PSG keeper Keylor Navas was expulsed with a red card in the 65th minute for a nasty foul on Ludovic Blas, and  Sergio Rico  was brought in as replacement. Messi's goal came in the 87th minute as he took on a pass from Kylian Mbappe on the edge of the box and shot it into the net.  “I’m happy with this first goal, I really wanted it. I had several chances before in this match and in the previous matches,” said Messi. “I am very happy with this first goal in the league, I had already scored in...

On Sunday, October 10, Argentina faced Uruguay in a 2022 World Cup qualifier. Argentina were victorious, bating Uruguay 3-0. Messi was first to open scoring for Argentina, in the 38th minute with a pass! He literally assisted his own goal. It was his 80th and latest international goal for Argentina, making him the first South American male player to score 80 international goals.  Before half time, Rodrigo de Paul doubled Argentina's lead, with Lautaro Martinez going on to score from close range to make it 3-0 for the hosts. "We played a great game," Messi told reporters, per  Reuters , after the match. "Everything worked out perfectly.” "Uruguay wait for you and they generate danger. Once we got the first goal we started to find space and the goals appeared.” Argentina come second in the South American World Cup qualifying race, with Brazil leading - 28 points from nine wins and a draw in 10 games. Ecuador come third, Uruguay fourth, and Colombia fifth, ...

Six-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi has ended his mini goal drought at PSG as he scored on Tuesday night in a 2-0 victory over Manchester City in the Champions League group phase. PSG midfielder Idrissa Gueye gave PSG an early lead in the 8th minute, with Raheem Sterling and Bernado Silva coming close to equalizing for PSG as they hit the bar in succession. Messi's sublime goal from the edge of the box however cemented victory for the French.  Football pundit and former Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand reacted on BT Sport as Messi took up a position on the floor behind a defensive wall to prevent Manchester City from surprising PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma with a low shot as City took a late free kick. He said: “No, no, no, no. You can’t. “It’s disrespectful, I wouldn’t have it. “If I was in that team, I’d have to say, ‘Listen, I’ll lay down for you.’ “Sorry, I couldn’t have him laying down like that. I can’t see it. “He don’t get his kit...