Top FIFA World Cup records set by Lionel Messi

The Argentinian star will be looking to get his hands on football’s most prestigious trophy this time around

Lionel Messi is a seven-time Ballon d'Or winner. The legendary Argentinian forward is arguably the greatest footballer of all time. He is almost unstoppable with the ball at his feet and is one of the most well-rounded players to have pulled on a pair of cleats. He started his career as an agile, tricky winger who was at his best dribbling past defenders.

But steadily fine-tuned his game and became one of the most devastating and dangerous forwards in the history of the game, in spite of his incredible close control and dribbling ability, it is the combination of his balance, speed and strength on the ball that makes him so good at beating opponents.

The World Cup in Qatar is going to be the last World Cup of Argentine legend Lionel Messi, but he has broken many records as a player and had made a lot of records himself. Here we look at some of Lionel Messi's World Cup records.

Most official MOTM awards in a single tournament

Messi is the player who has won the most MOTM (man of the match) awards in a single World Cup tournament ever - 5 in 2014. He also has the overall record for World Cup MOTMs in Argentina’s history - 7. These awards have only been given since 2002, but no player has earned more in a single tournament than the 4 awards Messi got in 2014.

Most official MOTM awards overall

Overall, Lionel Messi has 6 official MOTM awards to his name at World Cups, a record he shares with Ronaldo and Robben.

Only player to score at a World Cup in his teens, 20's and 30's

He has already played four world Cups but this is the fifth time that he will once again appear in the World Cup, but he has a pretty unique record, he scored in his debut in the 2006 World Cup at 18 years old and at the 2014 World Cup he was 26 and at the 2018 World Cup he had just turned 31.

Only player to assist in 4 different World Cups

Messi has provided at least 1 assist in each of the 4 world cups he has played in, a tournament record. Messi is the only player in World Cup history who assisted in 4 different tournaments (2006 - 1, 2010 - 1, 2014 - 1, 2018 - 2).

Youngest goalscorer for Argentina at a World Cup

He was just 18 years and 357 days old when he made his world cup debut against Serbia and Montenegro scoring after just 14 minutes only the second youngest overall after Pelé. This also made him Argentina's youngest-ever player at a World Cup.

Youngest player to captain Argentina at a World Cup

He became Argentina's youngest world Cup captain when Maradona gave him the armband against Greece in 2010, 2 days before his 23rd birthday.

Most successful dribbles at the World Cup

Messi is the player with the most dribbles completed recorded in World Cup history - 110. Diego Maradona (105) is second. Only two players completed more than 100 dribbles at the World Cup since 1966.

Most assists in World Cup in knockout games

Four of Messi's five World Cup assists have come in the knockout rounds, a record he shares with the great Pele.