Lionel Messi continues to write unforgettable pages in the World Cup. In the 2026 World Cup, the Argentine captain left behind one of the most important marks of the tournament by becoming the top scorer in the history of the World Cup, surpassing the record that for years belonged to Miroslav Klose.

Now, the former German soccer player revealed the gesture that the Argentine striker had after reaching that figure and surprised with details of the conversation they had.

Messi's promise in the call with Miroslav Klose

In an interview reported by the French newspaper L'Equipe, Miroslav Klose explained that he never felt upset about losing first place among the top scorers in the World Cups and, on the contrary, he praised the Argentine captain's career.

“Messi is an incredible phenomenon,” said the world champion with Germany in Brazil 2014.

The former forward also explained that the contact between the two was possible thanks to Lionel Scaloni, with whom he shared a dressing room at Lazio between 2011 and 2013.

"Scaloni was my partner and we kept in touch regularly. He organized a call between Messi and me after he equaled my scoring record in the World Cup. It was very emotional," he said.

In addition, he revealed a special detail from that conversation:

“He told me he would send me a signed shirt,” said Klose, who currently coaches Nuremberg in the German Second Division.

This is how the table of top scorers in the World Cups looked like

With his performance in the 2026 World Cup, Lionel Messi reached 21 goals in the World Cup and became the top scorer of the tournament.

The Argentine reached that figure thanks to three goals against Algeria, two against Austria, one against Jordan, another against Cape Verde in the round of 32 and one more against Egypt in the round of 16, in addition to the goals he had scored in previous editions.

His scoring production in the World Cups is distributed as follows: one goal in Germany 2006, four in Brazil 2014, one in Russia 2018, seven in Qatar 2022 and eight in the 2026 World Cup.

For his part, Miroslav Klose closed his World Cup career with 16 goals in 24 games, a figure he achieved between the 2002 and 2014 World Cups. The goal with which he surpassed Ronaldo was 2-0 in Germany's 7-1 victory over Brazil in the 2014 semifinals, a tournament that they ended up winning.

Mbappé also left Miroslav Klose behind

Another of the footballers who surpassed Miroslav Klose's mark was Kylian Mbappé, who reached 19 goals in the World Cup after scoring four times in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup, twice in the round of 32 against Sweden and one more in the round of 16 against Paraguay.

Behind Messi and Mbappé appears Ronaldo Nazario, scorer of 15 goals in 19 World Cup matches, while Gerd Müller occupies the next place with 14 goals in just 13 matches, one of the best ratios between goals and matches in the history of the World Cups.