{"id":875842,"date":"2026-09-01T05:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875842\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T05:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:18:20","slug":"argentinas-lionel-messi-retires-from-international-football-this-hurts-me-a-lot-lionel-messi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875842\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi retires from international football: \u2018This hurts me a lot\u2019 | Lionel Messi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football seven weeks after Argentina were beaten by Spain in the World Cup final<\/a> in the US. The 39-year-old captained Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022<\/a> and two Copa Am\u00e9rica titles after winning his first cap in 2005.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Messi posted a picture on Instagram of notes that he wrote on 21 July, two days after the World Cup final, confirming he was ending his Argentina career and said the death of his father, Jorge, in early August<\/a> made him feel \u201cmore convinced than before\u201d. Messi was often visibly emotional during the tournament and revealed in the knockout stages that Jorge was undergoing medical treatment.<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s statement, addressed to Argentina<\/a> fans, read: \u201cAfter 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. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not long left and chapters are coming to an end \u2013 and this is one that hurts me a lot. I love, have loved and I will always love being part of the national team. 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].\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi thanked his family for accompanying him on a \u201cbeautiful but difficult journey\u201d. He previously announced his retirement from international football in 2016 after Argentina lost on penalties to Chile in the 2016 Copa Am\u00e9rica final<\/a> \u2013 at the time his fourth defeat in a major final out of four. The then Barcelona forward was often criticised for not producing his club form at international level and comparisons were constantly made with the World Cup-winning Diego Maradona. However, Messi was persuaded to continue and finally lifted silverware with his country at the 2021 Copa Am\u00e9rica in Brazil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take with me unforgettable memories and moments,\u201d his statement said. After victory against Brazil at the Maracan\u00e3 in the 2021 Copa Am\u00e9rica final, Messi was central to Argentina\u2019s first World Cup triumph since 1986 and scored in every knockout round in Qatar, including twice in the final against France \u2013 two years after the death of Maradona<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Argentina defended their Copa Am\u00e9rica title in 2024<\/a> amid speculation that Messi, by then playing for Inter Miami, would call it a day. He turned 39 during the World Cup this summer, briefly becoming the tournament\u2019s all-time record scorer before being overtaken by Kylian Mbapp\u00e9.<\/p>\n

His statement finished by returning to address Argentina fans: \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi retires as Argentina\u2019s record appearance maker \u2013 he won the first of his 207 caps in a friendly against Hungary in August 2005 and was sent off almost immediately for catching Vilmos Vanczak with an elbow. He is also Argentina\u2019s record scorer with 125 goals. Before playing for the senior team, he won the Under-20 World Cup and also won Olympic gold in 2008.<\/p>\n

Since the end of his sixth World Cup, Messi has featured seven times for Inter Miami and scored four goals in the 7-1 rout of Montreal<\/a> in Major League Soccer on Saturday. Messi signed a contract extension last year to 2028, when he will be 41.<\/p>\n

\u00c1ngel Di Mar\u00eda, who scored for Argentina in the 2021 Copa Am\u00e9rica and 2022 World Cup finals, led tributes from Messi\u2019s former teammates, writing: \u201cAll I know is that I was born in the right century to be able to see you, enjoy you and, above all, share with you all these years [together] with the national team.\u201d The midfielder Rodrigo de Paul posted: \u201cThank you for making us so happy. You can\u2019t imagine how many times you made people smile. You are eternal.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a teenager, Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez wrote to Messi to plead with him to reverse his 2016 decision to retire from Argentina duty, trying to work out if he would be old enough to play alongside him one day. \u201cThat kid was so lucky \u2026 Thank you for letting me share a part of your story,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to miss you so much, capit\u00e1n,\u201d said the striker Lautaro Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football seven weeks after Argentina were beaten by Spain in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-875842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875842","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=875842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}