Argentina got their World Cup title defence off to a flying start on Tuesday night in the United States' mid-west.
La Albiceleste had the little maestro to thank for their resounding victory against the Fennecs as the 38-year-old scored each of Argentina's three goals on the night.
Messi and co could so easily have been a goal down early on when Fares Chaibi struck beyond Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Lionel Messi scores first World Cup hat-trick at 38
However, the Algerian attacker was deemed to have strayed offside and VAR ruled out the North African side's opener.
Before too long, Rodrigo De Paul had split the Algeria defence, finding Messi on the turn and the Inter Miami attacker did as he has done for the past two decades and hit the back of the net from range.
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Upon the first blast of the referee's whistle in Kansas City, Messi had broken a record by appearing at a sixth World Cup Finals - but he wasn't done there.
Having scored at four of his five previous tournaments, South Africa 2010 being the uncharacteristic exception, Messi's 17th minute opener proved to be just the appetiser.
Shortly after half-time, Messi struck again, reacting fastest to a spillage by Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane, to go within one finish of equalling Miroslav Klose's all-time World Cup goals record.
The German striker netted 16 throughout his career with Die Mannschaft and has held the honour for the past 12 years.
But, on Tuesday evening, Messi went level, adding a third to his performance with a quarter of an hour remaining against the Algerians. And he managed it in trademark fashion, picking up possession on the edge of the penalty area, shifting the ball onto his favoured left foot and slotting into the bottom corner with precision from 18 yards.
There is now every chance Messi will surpass Klose and become the greatest goalscorer in FIFA World Cup history.
He may even take home the Golden Boot having surged to the top of the 2026 top goalscorer standings.
Messi is the first player to net a hat-trick at this tournament, following a trio of braces, scored by Elijah Just (New Zealand), Erling Haaland (Norway), Folarin Balogun (USA), Yasin Ayari (Sweden), Kai Havertz (Germany) and Kylian Mbappe (France).
Messi also became the first active MLS player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup match with his triple against Algeria, as well as the oldest player in World Cup history to score a brace, and then a hat-trick.
Argentina's next two fixtures are against Austria on Monday, June 22 and Jordan on Sunday, June 28 - in both of which he may eclipse Klose's record.
