{"id":253780,"date":"2026-07-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/an-ode-to-the-goat-lionel-messis-world-cups-by-the-numbers-the-gist\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:00:00","slug":"an-ode-to-the-goat-lionel-messis-world-cups-by-the-numbers-the-gist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/20\/an-ode-to-the-goat-lionel-messis-world-cups-by-the-numbers-the-gist\/","title":{"rendered":"An ode to the GOAT: Lionel Messi\u2019s World Cups by the numbers | The GIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST: <\/strong>Argentinian captain Lionel Messi likely played his final WC game yesterday, and while the greatest men\u2019s soccer player of all time hasn\u2019t officially retired from the international scene <em>yet<\/em>, we\u2019re commemorating the 39-year-old\u2019s incredible career with a look at his WC appearances, by the numbers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\ude31 3:<\/strong> Messi is the first man to start in three WC finals, and is officially the oldest outfield player (aka, not a goalie) to appear in a WC final.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc76 2006:<\/strong> Messi competed in six WCs, making his first appearance at age 19 in 2006. Astoundingly, Messi\u2019s WC performances only improved with age \u2014 this tourney was his most productive on the stat sheet as the GOAT recorded eight goals and four assists. Not bad for a dad of three.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc4f 21:<\/strong> Messi notched 21 goals across his six WCs, scoring in five of the tourneys he participated in. His 21 all-time career WC goals are second only to Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s 22.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc40 12:<\/strong> Messi\u2019s not done yet. He\u2019s already scored 12 goals for his MLS team, Inter Miami CF, so far this season. Miami\u2019s currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/standings\/2026\/conference#season=MLS-SEA-0001KA&amp;live=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">second in the Eastern Conference<\/a> and will return to play this Saturday. Will Messi see the field that quickly after the WC? Stay tuned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/lionel-messi-by-the-numbers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: Argentinian captain Lionel Messi likely played his final WC game yesterday, and while the greatest men\u2019s soccer player of all time hasn\u2019t officially retired from the international scene yet, we\u2019re commemorating the 39-year-old\u2019s incredible career with a look at his WC appearances, by the numbers. \ud83d\ude31 3: Messi is the first man to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-253780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}