Messi Retires from Argentina Duty
Lionel Messi has retired from international football after two decades with Argentina, confirming the decision on Monday in a handwritten statement that closed a career defined by a World Cup title in 2022 and a final defeat this summer.
The 39-year-old captain posted the message on 31 August, six weeks after Argentina lost 1-0 to Spain in extra time in the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium. He had written the words on 21 July, two days after that match, but waited to make them public. The death of his father and longtime agent, Jorge Messi, on 8 August at the age of 68 after a prolonged illness left him “even more convinced” the moment had arrived.
“After all this time since the final, and after thinking about it a lot, I want to tell everyone that I’m retiring from the national team,” Messi wrote. “It was a decision that hurt and still hurts deep inside, but I understand that this is the right moment.” He added that he had always given everything for the shirt, in the years of triumph and in the years before them, and that younger players now deserved their chance. He thanked fans, family, coaches and teammates, and said he would support the side from outside as one of the supporters rather than the captain. A postscript noted that his father’s death had strengthened the choice he first put on paper in July.
The numbers record a unique place in Argentine football. Messi won 207 caps and scored 125 goals, both national records. He made his debut in 2005 as an 18-year-old. He captained the team to the 2021 Copa América, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and a further Copa América title. He also reached the World Cup final in 2014 and again in 2026, becoming one of a small group of players to appear in three men’s World Cup finals.
The 2026 campaign ended in disappointment. Spain controlled the final and scored through substitute Ferran Torres in the 106th minute. Enzo Fernández was sent off late in normal time. Messi, in his sixth World Cup, had a quieter night than the one that had delivered the trophy four years earlier. Jorge Messi’s declining health had already hung over the tournament; the family disclosed in June that he was receiving treatment and he was unable to travel to the United States. After the final Messi returned to Argentina before rejoining Inter Miami. He flew home again immediately after his father’s death in Rosario.
This is not Messi’s first departure from the national team. He stepped away after the 2016 Copa América final before returning. At 39 he would have been 41 for the next Copa América and 43 for the following World Cup. He will continue at club level with Inter Miami, where his contract runs through the 2028 MLS season. The Argentine Football Association and former teammates have begun to mark the end of an era that delivered the country’s third World Cup and restored a sense of pride after years of near-misses.
Messi leaves as Argentina’s most-capped and highest-scoring player and as the figure who finally lifted the trophy that had eluded him for so long. The shirt now passes to a younger generation. He has said he will watch them from the stands. The journey that began twenty years ago in the blue-and-white stripes has reached its close, written in his own hand after a final that did not finish as hoped and after a personal loss that made the decision clearer.
