Lionel Messi, who is the captain of Argentina, scored his 100th goal for the reigning world champions against Curacao in a low-key friendly on Tuesday.

Messi, who has won the Ballon d'Or seven times, scored the first goal in the friendly against the Caribbean island minnows 20 minutes in.

Soon after, the 35-year-old added another just after the half-hour mark to make it 3-0. On 37 minutes, he finished his hat-trick with a fifth goal as Argentina made fun of their weak opponents.

Messi came into the game not only as his country's all-time top scorer, but also with more goals than Gabriel Batistuta (56 goals) and Sergio Aguero (41 goals) combined.

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This was Argentina's second game since winning the World Cup in dramatic fashion against France in Qatar in December. They won 4-2 on penalties after a thrilling 3-3 draw, and it was always going to be about Messi scoring 100 goals.

When he scored his 99th goal for the Albiceleste on Thursday of last week, Argentina was struggling against Panama in a match to celebrate their homecoming.

The Central Americans held out until the 78th minute, when Thiago Almada, a 21-year-old MLS star, beat them.

Then, with one minute left, Messi scored directly from a free kick in front of 83,000 crazy fans in Buenos Aires.

Curacao could only hold out for 20 minutes before Messi took a pass from Giovanni Lo Ceslo, cut inside his defender onto his weaker right foot, and shot low into the bottom corner.

On live TV, the referee then threw the ball to someone on the side of the field, and DirecTV commentators said it was going "straight to the museum."

Three minutes later, Nicolas Gonzalez beat goalie Eloy Room to the ball and scored with a header from 4 yards out.

Messi scored the first of three goals in four minutes, this time with his left foot, and Gonzalez set it up.

He then passed the ball to Enzo Fernandez, who scored with a long-range shot. Before Messi scored his hat trick, Lo Celso gave Messi the ball behind the defense.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES