{"id":814134,"date":"2026-07-21T10:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814134\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T10:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:10:16","slug":"world-cup-messi-thanks-argentina-fans-but-wound-will-take-time-to-heal-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814134\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: Messi thanks Argentina fans but \u2018wound will take time to heal\u2019 | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a><\/p>\n

Argentina were beaten 1-0 in the final by Spain in what has been rumoured to be Lionel Messi\u2019s final World Cup game.<\/p>\n

Published On 21 Jul 202621 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

After what may have been his \u200cfinal World Cup match, Lionel Messi was in tears on the field on Sunday \u2060in East Rutherford, \u2060New Jersey, ruing a missed chance to win a second consecutive title for Argentina.<\/p>\n

Messi, without hinting whether his World Cup career was officially through, congratulated Spain, who beat Argentina 1-0<\/a> in the final, \u2060and said the memories would last, in an Instagram post on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pain is immense, and this wound will take time to heal,\u201d Messi wrote in his native Spanish alongside \u2060a photo of him bearing a silver medal.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also hold onto all the good things\u2026 The matches we turned around by giving it our all \u2013 moments that will remain in our memories forever \u2013 and the support of an entire country which, combined with this group\u2019s hard work and \u200ceffort, brought us back among the world\u2019s elite once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard to fully appreciate our achievement right now, but this group reached two consecutive World Cup finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Argentina defeated France on penalty kicks following a 3-3 draw in the 2022 final in Qatar, earning the last piece of major hardware Messi had yet to win in his illustrious career.<\/p>\n

Argentina were once again one of the best teams in the \u20602026 tournament in North America. They rallied past England in the \u2060semifinal before coming up against a Spanish defence that held them without a shot on goal.<\/p>\n

Messi turned 39 during the tournament and will turn 43 during the 2030 World Cup, which will be held in Spain, Portugal \u2060and Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you from the bottom of my heart for every greeting and message,\u201d Messi wrote. \u201cOnce again, we managed to unite \u2060as a country and stand together, sharing the immense \u2060pride of being Argentine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to congratulate Spain on winning the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi broke Miroslav Klose\u2019s record of 16 all-time World Cup goals early in the tournament, and he finished with 21, though he was caught \u200cand surpassed by Kylian Mbappe (22).<\/p>\n

The French star also denied Messi a Golden Boot<\/a>, finishing with 10 goals to the Argentine\u2019s eight.<\/p>\n

ESPN reported on Monday that Messi and his national \u200cteam \u200cand club teammate Rodrigo De Paul will not play the next two regular-season matches for Inter Miami, nor participate in the MLS All-Star Game, as they rest and recover from the World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentina were beaten 1-0 in the final by Spain in what has been rumoured to be Lionel Messi\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12910,596,43,2186,44,588,41,39,42,40,1055,6075,124617],"class_list":["post-814134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-argentina","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}