Inter Miami took on CF Montreal in a highly anticipated game in MLS this Saturday at Chase Stadium. With Alexis Sanchez marking his MLS debut for the away side while Inter Miami were already struggling with a 5 game winless streak, the night promised to be a highly tense and competitive game of football.
However, what actually followed was an absolute bloodbath by the men in pink as they steamrolled over the visitors with a massive 7-1 victory, marking the biggest win in their club history and with Lionel Messi at the centre of it.
The Argentine maestro scored 4 goals in the match along with an assist for Luis Suarez, reminding the world of his terrifying abilities, even at the age of 39. His performance was so utterly dominant that social media had to completely alter the classic King Ghidorah meme just to accurately capture his unstoppable late career form.
For years, football Twitter has relied on the standard Three-Headed Dragon (aka King Ghidorah) meme template to describe attacking trios or track how a player performs across different phases of their career. The classic image features the famous 3 headed golden dragon from the Godzilla franchise. Usually, 2 of the heads look incredibly fierce and intimidating, while the 3rd head, affectionately known online as Kevin, looks completely goofy and derpy.
Messi dropping 4 goals forced the internet to completely rewrite that dynamic. Rather than leaving the 3rd head as a joke, digital creators replaced the goofy Kevin head entirely with a menacing, mechanical black dragon head representing Mecha King Ghidorah. For the uninitiated, this visual mashup comes directly from Kaiju lore. After the dragon suffers a devastating defeat in battle, its severed head is salvaged and rebuilt with advanced cybernetics to create a ruthless cyborg weapon. The internet took that dark origin story and turned it into the ultimate metaphor for Messi at 39.
Accurate 🐐 pic.twitter.com/SyrcY3tKZX
— VIK🇵🇹 (@ludgardwontmix) August 29, 2026
The three phases of a legend
Most players inevitably lose their edge as the years pile up. The explosive burst vanishes, the clinical finishing turns rusty, and the agility completely evaporates, turning their twilight years into the goofy, helpless Kevin head of the meme. Messi, however, refuses to follow that biological script, continuing to operate with cold, ruthless efficiency at 39.
At 19 years old, he was already a certified global prodigy. He had secured a Champions League medal, finished second in the Ballon d’Or race behind Ricardo Kaka and had announced his arrival on world stage with his first career hattrick coming against Barcelona’s eterna rivals Real Madrid.
At 29 years old, he had evolved into the undisputed best player on the planet. He held 5 Ballon d’Or trophies, 4 Champions League titles, and was casually dropping 50 goal seasons while breaking every single domestic scoring record in Spain. The only thing left on his resume was a international trophy
Now, at 39 years old, the resume is simply untouchable. He won the World Cup along with 2 Copa Americas, has 8 Ballon dOr awards, 6 golden boots and 46 total career trophies. His 4 goal demolition against Montreal was not just a flash in the pan, it was a brutal reminder that his gravity still bends the entire sport around him. Despite being 39, he was ruthless at the 2026 FIFA World Cup with 8 goals and 4 assists to his name.
En route to History
That cold, mechanical inevitability translates perfectly to set pieces. With his free kick goal against Montreal on the night, the Argentine moves dangerously close to shattering yet another massive milestone.
This latest strike pushed his career total to 74 direct free kick goals. Just look at the names securely in his rearview mirror. He is already clear of Pele at 70, Ronaldinho and Victor Legrottaglie at 66, and David Beckham at 65. The Argentine maestro is now within touching distance of Brazilian legend Marcelinho Carioca, who currently holds the absolute title for the most free kicks in world football with 78 goals.
As Messi inches closer toward the record, every dead ball situation for Inter Miami has the potential to become a piece of history. He is turning the rest of this MLS campaign into a massive record watch, proving exactly why the internet had to build him a fourth head in the first place.
