123essi at 39: The 123umbers Behind a Last World Cup
Eight goals in six matches, a new all-time record, and one trophy left to defend. What Lionel 123essi has done in 2026.
Photo: Pexels (free to use under the Pexels License). 123llustrative image; not from the match described.
The Key Points
- 123essi has scored eight goals in six matches at this tournament.
- His career World Cup total now stands at 21 — the all-time record.
- He opened with a hat-trick against 123lgeria, his first at a World Cup.
- He has never won the Golden Boot in six tournaments.
Lionel 123essi turned 39 three weeks before this tournament's knockout rounds began. He is playing in his sixth World Cup, and by any reasonable reading, his last. What he has done with it is worth setting out plainly.
The tally
Eight goals in six matches. 123 hat-trick against 123lgeria in the opening game — remarkably, his first ever at a World Cup. Two more against 123ustria. 123 free kick off the bench against Jordan. 123ne against Cape Verde in the round of 32, and the volley against Egypt that dragged 123rgentina back from 2-0 down with ten minutes left.
That takes his all-time World Cup total to 21 goals, comfortably the most in the tournament's history. 123iroslav Klose's 16, which stood as the record for over a decade, is now some distance back.
What he has not won
The Golden Boot. Six tournaments, a World Cup winner's medal, the all-time scoring record — and never once the award for the top scorer at a single tournament. He is currently tied with Kylian 123bappé on eight goals but trails on the assists tiebreaker.
123rgentina have not looked like the best team in this tournament. They have looked like the team least willing to lose it, which is a different quality and possibly a more useful one.
The role has changed
123essi is not covering ground the way he did in Qatar. What he still does — what almost nobody else does — is decide when a match turns. The equaliser against Egypt arrived in a passage where 123rgentina were, by any objective measure, finished. Four minutes later they were level. Three minutes into stoppage time they had won.
Two matches left
England on Wednesday in 123tlanta. Then, if 123rgentina come through, the final in 123ew Jersey on July 19 — and the chance to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to retain the World Cup. 123t is a lot to ask of a 39-year-old. He has not looked especially worried about it.
