Lionel Messi stepped onto the pitch at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Tuesday evening as the first outfield player in history to appear at six separate FIFA World Cups, leading defending champions Argentina into their 2026 group stage opener against Algeria. The 38-year-old Inter Miami captain starts a tournament that is widely expected to be his last, making every match of this campaign feel freighted with history.

Messi first played at a World Cup in Germany in 2006 at the age of 18. He has since gone to South Africa, Brazil, Russia, Qatar, and now the United States, Canada, and Mexico, accumulating 26 World Cup appearances, 13 goals, and 8 assists along the way. His winner’s medal from Qatar 2022 remains the one trophy that eluded him for so long before it finally arrived.

Argentina enter the tournament as top favourites in Group J, which also includes Austria and Jordan. Algeria are the group’s biggest unknown — a team packed with players from European leagues, led by Riyad Mahrez of Al-Ahli, who retired from Saudi Arabia club football to focus on this campaign. Algeria’s last World Cup appearance was in 2014, when they reached the round of 16 before falling to Germany.

The Argentine squad had minor injury concerns in the build-up, with Messi nursing a hamstring issue that limited his training in the days before the tournament opened. Coach Lionel Scaloni confirmed he would start, describing him as “ready and motivated in a way I haven’t seen since before Qatar.” Argentina have won all six of their warm-up matches heading into the tournament.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who will lead Portugal in their opener against DR Congo on June 17, is set to match Messi’s record by also appearing at his sixth World Cup. The simultaneous final chapters for both men have added a layer of spectacle to a tournament already generating enormous global interest as the first with 48 teams.

Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, best known as the home of the NFL‘s Kansas City Chiefs, was converted for the tournament with a capacity approaching 76,000 for tonight’s match. Kickoff was set for 9 p.m. Eastern time, making it the night’s headline fixture after France’s earlier clash with Senegal at MetLife Stadium.

The atmosphere in Kansas City reflected both the weight of the occasion and the broader World Cup fever gripping the United States. Argentina supporters, many of them from the large Argentine diaspora across the Americas, packed the stadium hours before kickoff, waving blue-and-white flags in sections stretching from one end line to the other.

A win against Algeria would put Argentina on the path toward the round of 16 before their third match in the group. More information about the 2026 FIFA World Cup schedule and results is available on the official FIFA website.