Messi, Messi, and Messi

Time was his adversary; age was a silent challenge. But he seems unwilling to abide by the rules of the calendar. He wants to enjoy football goal after goal and mesmerize fans with the magic of his left foot.

He is Lionel Messi. Before the World Cup camp began, he had a minor injury. Age had placed its hand on his shoulder. But brushing everything aside, the man nearing 39 has arrived at the World Cup in America with his left-footed wizardry. Today in Kansas, this Argentine superstar's hat-trick sent Algeria flying with a 3-0 defeat.

Who could have imagined such a start from Messi? Especially when the big teams were struggling, there was growing concern about the defending champions—especially since they had also lost their first match in Qatar.

But when the greatest footballer of all time is in your team, where is room for worry? Messi seems to have picked up right where he left off at the Qatar World Cup. That same sharpness, the left-footed magic, the precision—everything appears to be as before. In the fifth minute of the match, he found the back of the net against Algeria, but his body was slightly offside, so the goal was ruled out.

About three minutes later, with a brilliant move, he dribbled past Algeria's Chaibi and Argentina's goalkeeper Emiliano, sending the ball into the net, but again the goal was disallowed for offside.

However, in the 17th minute, Messi controlled a long pass from De Paul and, from outside the box, struck with pinpoint precision. Algerian goalkeeper Luca Zidane managed to get his fingertips to the ball, but he couldn't stop the shot.

It was his 14th goal in World Cups. After the break, he returned to the field and in the 60th minute, sent the ball into Algeria's net once more, bringing himself even closer to Miroslav Klose. And why would he stop there? In the 76th minute, he delivered another goal with that left foot, almost a replay of the first. A foot worthy of being wrapped in gold. With that, the Argentine superstar has now drawn level with Klose at the top of the World Cup's all-time goal-scorers list.

Meanwhile, at midnight, Mbappé had scored a brace, thinking he might overtake Messi. But as soon as Messi's magical football began in the morning, the French star fell behind. In response to a brace, he delivered a hat-trick—and this feat came from the feet of the oldest player to ever score a hat-trick in a World Cup.

Additionally, playing his 200th match in an Argentina jersey, Messi's hat-trick took his goal tally to 120. It was an unbelievable record-breaking match for Lionel Messi. Every record seems to have crumbled like dust beneath his boots. Age is just a number. In truth, a legend's age increases, but his magic never grows old.