Missouri, June 17 -- Lionel Messi, at the age of 38, has broken his contemporary and arch-rival Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo's record for the oldest player to score a hat-trick at the FIFA World Cup, according to Fox Sports. The Argentine legend opened his 2026 World Cup campaign with a brilliant hat-trick, leading Argentina to a 3-0 win over Algeria on Tuesday (local time).

At 38 years and 357 days, Messi has become the oldest player in men's World Cup history to register both a brace and a hat-trick. In the process, he surpassed Ronaldo to become the oldest player to score a World Cup hat-trick, overtaking Ronaldo's record set at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, where he famously netted a hat-trick against Spain at the age of 33, acc...