Messi's 102 goals for Argentina
Messi made his debut for Argentina in a friendly match against host Hungary 2-1 on August 17, 2005. It wasn't until the sixth match that Messi scored his first goal for the team, even though Argentina lost 2-3 to Croatia in a friendly match in Switzerland on March 1, 2006.
Since then, Messi has scored every year for the team. His best record is 18 goals in 14 matches in 2022 at the age of 35, including seven goals in the 2022 World Cup, five in the knockout round.
Messi surpassed the 100-goal mark for Argentina in a friendly against Curacao on the evening of March 28, when he scored a hat-trick to increase his record to 102 goals. In which, only four goals he scored when the home team failed. In addition to the above Croatia match, Messi also scored when Argentina lost to Colombia in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Spain in the 2009 friendly match and Saudi Arabia in the 2022 World Cup group stage.
Messi is the third player in history to surpass 100 goals for a national team, after Ali Daei (Iran) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal). The 36-year-old superstar is the first South American player to do this.
Messi has scored against 37 teams, the most being Bolivia with eight goals. Ronaldo conceded 47 teams, the most being Luxembourg with 11 goals. Daei also scored against 36 teams, of which Laos and Maldives both scored eight times.
In the six FIFA confederations, Messi has scored against teams from five confederations, with the exception of OFC (Oceania). Daei's achievements are similar, and Ronaldo has scored against all six confederations. The Portuguese superstar is also leading in hat-tricks at the national team level, with 10, while Messi has scored nine hat-tricks and Daei has scored three or more in eight games.
Messi needed 174 games to score 102 goals, a rate of 0.59 goals per game, lower than Daei 0.73 and Ronaldo 0.62 goals per game. Messi's goal percentage in friendlies is 47%, compared to Ronaldo's 16% and Daei 25%.
In 121 matches in official tournaments, Messi scored 54 goals, a rate of 0.47 goals per game. His performance in the friendly match was much better, reaching 0.91 goals per game. But in the most important tournament for a team is the World Cup, Messi has scored 13 goals, including five in the knockout round. Ronaldo has scored eight goals in the World Cup, but has not scored in the knockout stages, and Daei has not even scored in a final of the tournament.
Messi's performance is also marginally better, when he takes an average of 93 minutes to score or assist, with Ronaldo's 101 minutes. If only counting the knockout round in major tournaments such as the World Cup, Copa America or Euro, Messi's performance is 95 minutes for a goal or assist, with Ronaldo's 318 minutes.
