Lionel Messi marks his 39th birthday on Wednesday in the most emphatic fashion imaginable — as the outright leading scorer in World Cup history, five goals into a tournament he was not even certain to attend.

A hat-trick against Algeria drew him level with Miroslav Klose's all-time record, and two more against Austria sent him clear. He now sits two goals away from matching his entire tally from the 2022 edition in Qatar, where he steered Argentina to glory. This is his record sixth World Cup appearance, and he looks, impossibly, better than ever.

Doubts before departure

Just months ago, his participation was far from guaranteed. Messi's prolonged public silence sparked widespread speculation that he might not feature at all. "It's up to him, how he feels in his mind and his physical condition," Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said in March. His eventual inclusion was greeted with relief — and he has wasted no time proving he belongs at the very top.

Messi currently leads the Golden Boot race, with Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland on four goals each and Cristiano Ronaldo on two. Having already surpassed Gerd Muller, Ronaldo, and Klose in the all-time charts, he holds a cushion that his rivals will find hard to close.

More than just goals

The statistics tell a story beyond the scoresheet. Messi ranks as the best-performing player at the tournament according to the Sky Sports World Cup power rankings, which incorporate a broad range of metrics. He sits in the 96th percentile or above among midfielders and forwards for non-penalty expected goals, shots, and passes into the final third. For progressive carries, he is in the 92nd percentile; for open-play expected assists, the 86th.

Perhaps most surprisingly, he ranks in the 72nd percentile for possessions won — one of which directly set up his opener against Austria, swept home from Facundo Medina's cut-back with characteristic precision.

Less running, more impact

Scaloni has engineered the ideal environment for Messi to flourish. Argentina are consistently finding him in shooting positions inside the width of the posts, accounting for all five of his goals. He drifts freely across the front line, dropping deep to link play and making himself difficult to track.

Off the ball, Messi is largely relieved of defensive duties, with younger teammates — Enzo Fernandez, Thiago Almada, Lautaro Martinez, and Julian Alvarez — covering the ground around him. The result is extraordinary efficiency. According to FIFA, Messi covers just 7.8km per 90 minutes, the lowest figure of any midfielder or forward at the tournament. He still produces sharp bursts of pace when it matters, as his build-up to the second Austria goal demonstrated, but he conserves his energy with surgical care.

A record built over decades

More than 70 percent of Messi's 18 World Cup goals — 13 of them — have arrived since he turned 30. He has scored twice as many goals across the last two tournaments as he managed in his first four combined. Five of those 18 have come from outside the box, with 14 struck with his dominant left foot.

Algeria are now the team he has scored against most at the World Cup, level with Nigeria, against whom he netted in the group stages at Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018. His first World Cup goal came as an 18-year-old substitute in a 6-0 win over Serbia in 2006. Two decades on, he is the ninth player to hold the record for most World Cup goals in the competition's 94-year history.

With Argentina already through to the knockout stage as Group J winners, and the expanded tournament format offering a potentially longer route to the final, there is every reason to expect the records to keep falling.