In the summer of 1958 a little-known French striker named Just Fontaine arrived in Sweden and produced a scoring run that still defies belief. Thirteen goals in six matches, including four in a third-place play-off, gave Fontaine a record that would stand for decades and made him one of the original World Cup gods. He found the net in every appearance, a feat of relentless hunger and timing that defined an era before televised football made every moment global. Fontaine had not even been France’s first-choice forward at the start of the tournament, but an injury to team-mate Rene Bliard opened the door and he stormed through it with a hunger that overwhelmed defences. At the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, Lionel Messi has matched that consistency in his own breathtaking style. His brace against Austria in Dallas carried him to 18 tournament goals and placed him alongside Fontaine and Jairzinho as the only players to score in six consecutive World Cup matches. The numbers echo 1958, but the context is different. Fontaine was a classic centre-forward feeding off crosses; Messi is a false-nine-turned-playmaker who creates and finishes with equal menace. Where Fontaine struck with predatory instinct inside the box, Messi scores from distance, free-kicks and mazy dribbles. Yet both men understood the same secret: in a short tournament, momentum is everything. As Messi chases a second consecutive crown, Fontaine’s long shadow offers both inspiration and proof that one hot streak can define an entire lifetime. The Frenchman’s record stood untouched until modern scoring rates and expanded formats changed the landscape, but the psychological pressure of scoring in every match remains the same. Messi’s current run spans the emotional final of Qatar 2022 and the opening matches of the North American tournament, a bridge between two continents and two acts of an extraordinary career. If he can extend the sequence deep into the knockout rounds, he may not just match Fontaine; he may surpass the very idea of what a World Cup scoring streak can mean.