Lionel Messi did not merely win Argentina's second World Cup group match against Austria - he reshaped the tournament's record books. A trademark left-footed curler and a clinical finish in a crowded six-yard box gave the reigning champions a 2-0 victory, but the numbers attached to those goals mean far more than three points. The Inter Miami forward is now the all-time leading goalscorer in World Cup history, a record that, given what came before it, may never be broken.

The milestone arrived with the kind of inevitability that only Messi can manufacture. A hat-trick in the opener against Algeria was already the talk of the tournament; two more against Austria put the statistics into a different dimension entirely. Messi has now scored in six consecutive World Cup matches, a sequence matched only by France's Just Fontaine and Brazil's Jairzinho, both in 1958. No player in the competition's history has ever scored in seven straight. With Argentina's third group game against Jordan still to come, that record is very much in his sights. For fans following football across formats and platforms - from World Cup broadcasts to, say, deciding where to bet mpl on esports - Messi's dominance is a reminder of what sustained greatness looks like at the highest level of any competition.

There is another landmark within reach. According to Opta, Messi has created more chances in World Cup history than any other player - and he currently shares the all-time assist record since records began in 1966 with Diego Maradona, the man he grew up idolising. One more assist, and he stands alone. The symmetry of surpassing Maradona at a World Cup would be almost too neat to script, yet this particular story keeps writing itself.

How a 38-Year-Old Is Still Defining the World's Biggest Tournament

The question being asked in press boxes and living rooms across the world is not just what Messi is doing, but how. He turns 39 on Wednesday. He has spent three years playing Major League Soccer in Miami, a league not designed to test the very best. The assumption, not an unreasonable one, was that this World Cup would come a step too far. Wayne Rooney, who faced Messi in two Champions League finals with Manchester United and watched him score in both, admitted as much. "Coming into this World Cup, I pretty much wrote Argentina's chances off because I didn't think he could carry on at that level for another one," Rooney said. "The one thing age can never take away from players is their ability with the ball. You put him around the penalty box and he has the ability to do things others can't."

Olivier Giroud, himself 39 and still active in Ligue 1, has offered one of the more thoughtful perspectives on what sustains elite athletes beyond the age at which most have retired. "It's clear just how passionate Messi still is for football and you can tell it's in his DNA to always be a competitor, and to try and outdo himself more than anyone else," Giroud said. "Playing at a high level at our age, you have to pay close attention to your life hygiene - how you sleep, your diet, and taking care of your body. The key thing is still having the desire, the motivation, the passion, to keep going." Sports psychologist Michael Caulfield, who has worked in professional football for over two decades, frames it in terms of mental architecture as much as physical conditioning. "Players know themselves inside out by that age," he said. "Mentally, it's about whether they have the capacity in their minds to deal with the daily grind. All the top athletes I've ever known are willing to try and go back one more time, because they love doing what they do."

The Golden Boot, Personal Grief, and What Comes Next

The Golden Boot - the one major individual prize that has eluded Messi throughout a career that has produced almost everything else - now appears a genuine possibility. With five goals in two matches, he leads the scoring charts and has the firepower of the Argentine attack behind him to create the situations he needs. It would be the final clause in one of sport's most extraordinary career narratives.

There is a human dimension to this run of form that should not be overlooked. Messi was visibly emotional after scoring the opener against Algeria in Argentina's first match, and his family subsequently released a statement confirming that his father is currently dealing with a health-related situation. That context does not diminish the performances - if anything, it adds weight to them. For all the records and the statistics, what the past two matches have demonstrated most clearly is that Messi plays football the way Giroud describes: like someone who cannot imagine doing anything else. A generation of challengers - Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Vinicius Jr - are all making their own marks on this tournament. But to claim the crown, they will first have to outperform a 38-year-old from Rosario who is playing some of the best football of his life.