Lionel Messi broke down in tears during his record-equalling night for Argentina against Algeria in the World Cup, insisting it had 'nothing to do with football.'
Defending world champions Argentina opened their group campaign with a 3-0 victory over Algeria, with their legendary number 10 scoring a sublime hat-trick. His three-goal haul, his first for his country, moved him level with Miroslav Klose on 16 goals in the all-time top scorer rankings. It was also his 200th appearance for Argentina.
Messi's brilliance defined the night, opening the scoring after 17 minutes by curling a fine effort home from outside the box. He was mobbed by his teammates, but after they broke away, Messi was spotted wiping away tears in his shirt before the action resumed.
While the night marked a significant achievement in the career of perhaps football's greatest ever player, the former Barcelona star later admitted the occasion was not the reason for his emotion. 'Honestly, completely unrelated to the sport, I went through some difficult, complicated days,' Messi said before thanking his teammates and La Albiceleste staff for helping him. 'I'm grateful to the entire delegation, to my teammates. They were always there for me, as always. They gave me a lot of strength to get through this, and that's all.'
Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland both scored braces in games against Senegal and Iraq respectively before Messi stepped up and outshone both of them. Regarding the record, Messi added: 'Honestly, no. It's an honour to be there because of what it means to be next to Klose, Ronaldo is there too, but I don't think it means anything. Mbappe is there, he scored two today. It's a statistic and nothing more. While it's an honour to be able to compete with all of them, it doesn't mean anything to me. Ronaldo, from what I saw, was one of the greatest and he's not in first place, so it all comes down to a statistic.'
