{"id":878556,"date":"2026-08-31T19:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/878556\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T19:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:24:17","slug":"lionel-messi-retires-from-argentina-national-team-won-2022-fifa-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/878556\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi Retires From Argentina National Team, Won 2022 FIFA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Argentina legend Lionel Messi announced his retirement from international football in an <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong mui-mlpnpn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DctWzhYxElg\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram post<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">He said he wrote the following two days after the World Cup final and was convinced it was the right decision after the death of his father in August, per the <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong mui-mlpnpn\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/messi-argentina-retires-8df27ab2059a740ea5bc97dbc6a49725\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Associated Press<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">&#8220;It was a decision that hurt \u2014 and still hurts deeply \u2014 but I understand that the time has come. I swear to you that I always gave it my all\u2014 not just in these last few years when we won everything, but before that too; I always fought and left everything on the field for this jersey, to bring you joy and make you feel proud to be Argentine through football. &#8230;&#8221;Thank you for all the love these past 20 years. I&#8217;m going to miss hearing you all from the inside so much. Now I&#8217;m going to be one of you, cheering and supporting you from the outside (through thick and thin, even more so). &#8230;&#8221;I leave with the peace of mind and pride of having given you \u2014 along with my teammates \u2014 moments we once only dreamed of. Experiencing this with you was incredible. I love you all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Messi, 39, leaves the international game behind after establishing an extraordinary legacy in the sport. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">With Argentina, he won a World Cup (2022), a pair of Copa Am\u00e9rica titles (2021, 2024), an Olympic gold medal (2008) and led the country to three World Cup finals (2014, 2022, 2026). He has the most goals (125) and caps\u00a0(207) in the history of the Argentina national team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">His 21 World Cup goals are the second most in history behind only France&#8217;s Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, and his 12 World Cup assists are the most in the history of the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">That international r\u00e9sum\u00e9, paired with an astonishing club career, has made the eight-time Ballon d&#8217;Or-winner the sport&#8217;s GOAT. And no athlete outside of perhaps Diego Maradona has ever been more beloved in Argentina.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">But now, his legendary time on the international stage has come to a close.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentina legend Lionel Messi announced his retirement from international football in an Instagram post on Monday. He said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-878556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}