Lionel Messi told Argentina on Monday that he is done with the national team. He is 39. His last match in the albiceleste was the World Cup final in July, which Spain won. [1] The notes he posted were dated July 21, two days after that game. He waited to say so because his father, Jorge, died in early August. The delay, he wrote, left him "more convinced than before." [1] He had been visibly emotional through the knockout rounds, and had already said Jorge was in treatment. [1]
"After the time that has passed since the final, thinking a lot, I want to let everyone know that I am retiring from the national team," the statement began. "It is a decision that hurts my soul but I know it is time. I can say for sure that I always gave everything, not only in the last few years when we won everything but before as well, and I always fought and gave everything for the shirt, to give you joy and make you proud of being Argentinian through football." [1] "There's not long left and chapters are coming to an end — and this is one that hurts me a lot." Then the emptying: "I have emptied myself: now I have nothing more to give and, besides, there are great young players coming through who deserve to be selected." [1] He thanked his family for a "beautiful but difficult journey." He finished where Argentine captains finish: "I go with the satisfaction and the pride of having, along with my teammates, giving you moments we dreamed about. I love you! I thank God for making me Argentinian." [1]
The career those sentences close is not a goals column. Messi won the 2022 World Cup, two Copa América titles, and Olympic gold in 2008. He is Argentina's record appearance maker, 207 caps from a 2005 debut against Hungary in which he was sent off almost immediately for an elbow on Vilmos Vanczak, and the country's record scorer with 125 goals. [1] He announced a retirement once before, in 2016, after Argentina lost on penalties to Chile in a Copa América final — at the time his fourth defeat in a major final out of four. He was persuaded to stay, and finally lifted silverware at the 2021 Copa América in Brazil. He scored in every knockout round in Qatar, twice in the final against France, two years after Diego Maradona's death. Argentina defended the Copa in 2024. He turned 39 during this summer's World Cup and briefly held the tournament's all-time scoring record before Kylian Mbappé passed him. [1] Enzo Fernández, then a teenager, wrote to him in 2016 begging him to reverse the first retirement, trying to work out if he would be old enough to play alongside him. "That kid was so lucky," Fernández said Monday. "Thank you for letting me share a part of your story." [1]
Ángel Di María, who scored in the 2021 Copa and 2022 World Cup finals, wrote that he was "born in the right century to be able to see you, enjoy you and, above all, share with you." Rodrigo de Paul said, "You are eternal." Lautaro Martínez: "We're going to miss you so much, capitán." [1] Since the World Cup he has gone back to Inter Miami, where he is contracted through 2028. On Saturday he scored four times in a 7-1 win over Montreal. [1] The club career continues. The shirt that made a country argue with itself is folded.
Piers Morgan did the other arithmetic within hours. Messi, he posted, leaves with 125 international goals, "the second-highest number in football history." Cristiano Ronaldo has 146 for Portugal, "the highest." "This settles the GOAT debate." The post treats a World Cup, two Copas, and an Olympic gold as if they were footnotes to a spreadsheet. The Guardian's version treats the spreadsheet as if it were beside the point. Neither reading is sufficient. The goals are real. So are the trophies. A retirement that holds only one of those facts is a fan argument wearing a news dateline.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino posted his own tribute Monday on Instagram, congratulating Messi as the 2022 World Cup champion and as Argentina's all-time leader in appearances and goals, and as the record holder for World Cup matches played. [2] The language was the language governing bodies use when they need to stand next to a player the world already loves. It arrived while UEFA's promised Swiss criminal complaint against Infantino over a failed commercial sale remains, as this paper reported Sunday, contemplated rather than filed. The president of FIFA can still find the time to praise a captain. The filing can wait.
-- LUCIA VEGA, São Paulo