Lionel Messi ends Argentina career after 21 years and World Cup glory

Lionel Messi has retired from international football at 39, ending a 21-year Argentina career in which he overcame repeated disappointment to win the World Cup and become his country’s record scorer and most-capped player.

Messi announced the decision on Monday, 31 August, six weeks after Argentina lost the 2026 World Cup final 1-0 to Spain in extra time. That match in New Jersey proved to be his final appearance for the national team.

“It was a decision that hurt and still hurts deep down, but I understand that the time has come,” Messi wrote on Instagram.

He said he had given everything he could to Argentina and believed that emerging players deserved the opportunity to take the team forward.

Messi originally wrote his farewell message on 21 July, two days after the World Cup final. The death of his father and longtime adviser, Jorge Messi, on 8 August reinforced the decision, he said. Jorge Messi was 68.

The retirement applies only to international football. Messi remains captain of Inter Miami, which signed him to a contract extension through the end of the 2028 Major League Soccer season in October 2025.

Messi leaves Argentina with national records of 207 appearances and 125 goals. He played in six World Cups, making a record 34 appearances and scoring 21 goals, the highest total in the tournament’s history, according to FIFA.

His final World Cup ended without the fairytale Argentina had sought. Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute as Spain beat the defending champions 1-0 in the 19 July final, preventing Messi from becoming only the second Argentina captain to lift successive World Cups. FIFA’s match record confirms the result.

Messi made his senior Argentina debut against Hungary in August 2005. His international career initially became defined by near misses, including defeat by Germany in the 2014 World Cup final and losses in the 2015 and 2016 Copa América finals.

After Argentina lost the 2016 Copa América Centenario final to Chile, Messi briefly announced his international retirement. He reversed the decision and returned for the World Cup qualifying campaign.

The second half of his international career changed his standing at home. Argentina beat Brazil in the 2021 Copa América final to give Messi his first senior international trophy. The team then defeated Italy in the 2022 Finalissima before beating France on penalties to win the World Cup in Qatar.

Messi added another Copa América title in 2024 and led Argentina to a second successive World Cup final in 2026.

He also won the 2005 Under-20 World Cup and an Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008, although those titles came outside the senior national team. His individual honors include a record eight Ballon d’Or awards.

The Argentine Football Association thanked Messi for what it described as the most beautiful journey of the country’s footballing life, saying his professionalism and legacy would remain with the national team.

His departure leaves Argentina without the player around whom its team and identity have been built for more than two decades.