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When every set of eyes turned to watch Lionel Messi run up to the ball at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, they expected the "Little Boy From Rosario" to put it past Alexander Schlager in Austria's net. Instead, the result was a shocking miss that flew well wide of the goalkeeper and didn't even graze the net.
While Messi was a hero during Argentina's 2022 World Cup-winning campaign in Qatar, the attacker has a surprisingly shaky history from the penalty spot. Across seven penalties taken in open play at the World Cup, Messi has now converted only four.
For now, Messi's chase for a record-breaking 17th World Cup goal remains on hold.
Here's a look at Messi's surprising penalty miss that kept things level against Austria.
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Lionel Messi missed penalty kick
In under ten minutes of play against Austria, Argentina was awarded a penalty kick after VAR checked a rash tackle inside the penalty box. After it was deemed a penalty, who else but Messi elected to take the kick? The result, however, was a shocker.
With a chance to become the all-time leading goalscorer in Men’s FIFA World Cup history, Messi misses the penalty wide pic.twitter.com/NcVQJy7Yzb
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 22, 2026Along with putting La Albiceleste up 1-0 in the match very early on in the game, Messi would have moved past Miroslav Klose as the sole top scorer in World Cup history. It would have been Messi's 17th goal at the tournament.
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Why do some players take a stutter step when taking a penalty?
Some players opt to take a series of stutter steps when approaching their penalty shot to throw off the goalie's timing. Many penalty takers traditionally run up to the ball in a straight line without stops. Goalkeepers had become accustomed to that timing, so some penalty-kick takers opted to add a stutter step or series of them into their run-up.
A player, however, is not allowed to come to a complete stop at the moment just before they shoot the ball. Along with that, they can not perform a fake shot once they are above the ball on the penalty spot.
Lionel Messi penalty kick history
At the World Cup, Messi has had seven opportunities from the penalty spot in open play, which excludes penalty shootouts. He now has three misses: today's miss against Austria, the 2022 World Cup against Poland, and at the 2018 World Cup against Iceland.
Here are the Argentine's complete penalty statistics both at the club and international levels, as of June 22:
| Barcelona | 82 | 25 | 77% |
| Paris Saint-German | 2 | 1 | 67% |
| Inter Miami | 4 | 1 | 80% |
| Argentina | 23 | 6 | 79.3% |
| Argentina U20s | 1 | 0 | 100% |
All-time World Cup goals leaders
With the miss, Messi is still tied with Germany's Miroslav Klose as the leading scorer in World Cup tournament history. Here is how the rankings look:
| 1. | Miroslav Klose | Germany | 16 | 24 | 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 |
| = | Lionel Messi* | Argentina | 16 | 27 | 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022, 2026 |
| 3. | Ronaldo | Brazil | 15 | 19 | 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 |
| 4. | Gerd Muller | West Germany | 14 | 13 | 1970, 1974 |
| = | Kylian Mbappe* | France | 14 | 15 | 2018, 2022, 2026 |
| 6. | Just Fontaine | France | 13 | 6 | 1958 |
| 7. | Pele | Brazil | 12 | 14 | 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970 |
| 8. | Sandor Kocsis | Hungary | 11 | 5 | 1954 |
| = | Jurgen Klinsmann | West Germany/Germany | 11 | 17 | 1990, 1994, 1998 |
| 10. | Helmut Rahn | West Germany | 10 | 10 | 1954, 1958 |
| = | Gary Lineker | England | 10 | 12 | 1986, 1990 |
| = | Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina | 10 | 12 | 1994, 1998, 2002 |
| = | Teofilo Cubillas | Peru | 10 | 13 | 1970, 1978, 1982 |
| = | Thomas Muller | Germany | 10 | 19 | 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 |
| = | Grzegorz Lato | Poland | 10 | 20 | 1974, 1978, 1982 |
| = | Harry Kane* | England | 10 | 12 | 2018. 2022. 2026 |
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