Lionel Messi has retired from international football, and honestly, it is still difficult to believe. We all knew this day would come sooner or later, but watching Argentina without Messi in that jersey is something that will take time to sink in. Arguably, the greatest footballer the game has ever seen will no longer wear the Argentina colours.
It wasn’t entirely shocking after the FIFA World Cup , but some goodbyes are just hard to accept. Messi has been part of football for as long as many of us can remember, redefining the game and giving fans moments they will never forget. The thought of Argentina stepping onto the pitch without him feels almost unreal. Messi walks away with a World Cup, two Copa America titles, an Olympic gold medal and the Finalissima. But rewind six years, and the picture was completely different. When you are spoken about among the greatest players ever, expectations are always different. He answered that criticism in the most emphatic way possible. Now, he retires having literally completed football and, for many, finally settled the GOAT debate.
He was constantly labelled an international failure despite taking Argentina to the 2014 World Cup final and several Copa America finals.
Winning international trophies was the one thing Messi was repeatedly told he lacked.
Messi later revealed in his retirement note that he had written it two days after the final. In Qatar, he answered every doubt in the only way he knew how. The triumph in Qatar put Messi in a category of his own. League titles, domestic cups, the UEFA Champions League, Copa America and finally the World Cup, there was hardly anything left for him to win. The international success he had chased for so long completed a career and a trophy cabinet that was already among the greatest football had ever seen. He put together a World Cup campaign to remember, making it clear to every young superstar on football’s biggest stage that as long as Messi was on the pitch, he was still the one to beat. He scored eight goals and provided four assists in seven matches, finishing just behind Kylian Mbappe in the tournament’s scoring charts. He had played the entire World Cup knowing his father was fighting for his life, and the emotions were visible on Messi’s face, particularly when he scored against Algeria, with his father clearly on his mind. But after his father’s death, it became clear that his journey in the Argentina colours had finally reached its end.
Before the 2022 World Cup, one of the biggest criticisms aimed at Messi was his lack of goals in knockout matches on football’s biggest stage. Messi scored in the Round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final and final, becoming the first player in World Cup history to find the net in every knockout round of a single edition. Many wondered if it would be the same Messi at 39, but he once again showed why age had never really mattered when it came to him. He ended with 125 international goals, but his legacy in Argentine colours was much more than just numbers.
