The lone fact that he’s playing at all makes the 2026 World Cup significant, with Messi being widely regarded as one of if not the greatest football players of his generation. He can do it all and has the 13 World Cup goals and 103 overall goals for the Argentina National Team to prove it.
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of Messi’s longtime foils. Though, the latter recently reminisced to Lo Del Pollo about their years of competing against each other at every level, calling their rivalry “beautiful.” Like Messi, this year’s tourney will be the Portuguese star’s sixth World Cup showing, with a total of eight World Cup goals in 22 games. His best finish was fourth in his debut in 2006. Now, he’s 41 years old and nearing the end of his lauded career, which saw him become the all-time leading scorer in men’s international football with 142 goals from 225 games.
