Lionel Messi close from Josef Bican
Lionel Messi’s poker for Inter Miami against Montreal (7–1) in the MLS match on 30 August ranks among the oldest such performances in world football history.
Messi is the sixth player to score four goals in a single top-level match at the age of 39 or older. His exact age on match-day was 39 years and 67 days.
One of those six players, the Bolivian Pablo Escobar, achieved this feat twice—with just an 11-day gap between the two matches.
The world record belongs to Josef Bican, who scored four goals in a Czech league match at the age of 41 years and 330 days. Messi still has a target to aim for!
Interestingly, the players following Bican in the rankings are exclusively South American.
Two four-goal hauls by Túlio are off-ranking as they were achieved in a regional league of quite modest level (though it was still a regional top tier).
NL = National League,
RL = Regional League (Paulista for Friedenreich, Goiano for Túlio Maravilha),
NC = National Cup (Copa Generalisimo for Puskás),
EC = European Cup
| OLDEST | POKERS | ||||||
| Player | Nationality | Age | Goals | Date | Team | Game | Сomp. |
| Josef Bican | Czechoslovakia | 41-330 | 4 | 21/08/1955 | Slavia Praga | Jiskra Liberec 7-2 | NL |
| Pablo Escobar | Bolivia | 40-160 | 4 | 19/12/2018 | The Strongest | Blooming 8-0 | NL |
| Pablo Escobar | Bolivia | 40-149 | 4 | 08/12/2018 | The Strongest | Sport Boys Warnes 6-0 | NL |
| Oscar Cardozo | Paraguay | 39-318 | 4 | 03/04/2023 | Libertad | Cerro Porteño 5-0 | NL |
| Carlos Saucedo | Bolivia | 39-215 | 4 | 14/04/2019 | San José | Always Ready 6-2 | NL |
| Arthur Friedenreich | Brazil | 39-162 | 4 | 27/12/1931 | São Paulo | São Bento 4-2 | RL |
| Lionel Messi | Argentina | 39-067 | 4 | 30/08/2026 | Inter Miami | Montreal 7-1 | NL |
| Túlio Maravilha | Brazil | 38-281 | 4 | 09/03/2008 | Vila Nova | Anapolina Goiano 7-0 | RL |
| Túlio Maravilha | Brazil | 38-245 | 4 | 02/02/2008 | Vila Nova | Anapolina Goiano 4-0 | RL |
| Ferenc Puskás | Spain | 38-174 | 4 | 22/09/1965 | Real Madrid | Feyenoord 5-0 | EC |
| Maksim Gruznov | Estonia | 38-132 | 5 | 31/08/2012 | Trans | Navi Vutiselts 9-0 | NL |
| Roque Santa Cruz | Paraguay | 38-100 | 4 | 24/11/2019 | Olimpia | Cerro Porteño 4-2 | NL |
| Alessandro Del Piero | Italy | 38-071 | 4 | 19/01/2013 | Sydney (Australia) | Wellington Phoenix 7-1 | NL |
| Ferenc Puskás | Spain | 38-045 | 4 | 16/05/1965 | Real Madrid | Mestalla 6-0 | NC |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 38-004 | 4 | 09/02/2023 | Al Nassr (Saudi Arabia) | Al Wehda 4-0 | NL |