Lionel Messi hopes the ‘craziness never ends’ after 100th international goal and wild celebrations

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Lionel Messi became the first world champion to net 100 international goals, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo (122) and Ali Daei (109) overall.

Lionel Messi hopes the “craziness never ends” after scoring his 100th goal and ninth hat-trick for his country amid Argentina’s homecoming World Cup celebrations on Tuesday.

La Albiceleste thrashed Curacao 7-0 in Santiago del Estero, with Messi opening his 100th international goal in the 20th minute to join only Cristiano Ronaldo (122) and Ali Daeia (109) in achieving the feat.

Messi became the first world champion to score 100 international goals and showed no signs of stopping there with further first-half strikes to take him to 102.

The milestone came as Argentina wrapped up their first two games on home soil since their World Cup triumph in December with wild celebrations, initially in Buenos Aires with a 2-0 win over Panama on Thursday.

The players mimicked their celebrations from Qatar after the match in Curacao, lifting the World Cup trophy again after it fell from the stadium roof and doing a lap of honor to greet the fans.

Messi was also presented with a plaque by the president of the Argentine Football Association, Claudio Tapia, to recognize his 100th goal.

“What a nice way to close these dates, impressive today all the people in Santiago del Estero,” wrote Messi on Instagram.

“I wish we could continue to share many moments like this together and that this madness never ends!!!”

Messi’s success comes after he scored 21 goals along with seven assists in his 14 games for Argentina. This gave him 156 goal assists, the most in international football.

Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni added: “As for Lionel Messi, I want him to be on the pitch and happy.”

He added: “These days were different to previous friendlies because the players could be with their people.

“We felt they had the desire to go outside to connect with the outside, even though it meant it was difficult to set up those two games. But we got them in the end with some intense play.”

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