{"id":702418,"date":"2026-07-20T23:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702418\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T23:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:37:16","slug":"world-cup-2026-lionel-messi-says-pain-is-immense-after-argentina-lose-world-cup-final-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702418\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Lionel Messi says ‘pain is immense’ after Argentina lose World Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi says “the pain is immense” and that it “will take time to heal” after Argentina lost 1-0 to Spain in the World Cup final.<\/p>\n

Ferran Torres’ extra-time strike saw Spain crowned world champions<\/a> for a second time, ending Argentina’s defence of the title they won in 2022.<\/p>\n

Messi has now lost two World Cup finals after Argentina were defeated 1-0 by Germany in 2014.<\/p>\n

At 39 years old, Messi is unlikely to feature at the 2030 tournament, though he is yet to clarify his international future.<\/p>\n

“The pain is immense, and this wound will take time to heal. But I also hold onto all the good things,” Messi wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

“The matches we turned around by giving it our all – moments that will remain in our memories forever – and the support of an entire country which, combined with this group’s hard work and effort, brought us back among the world’s elite once again.<\/p>\n

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

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for every greeting and message. Once again, we managed to unite as a country and stand together, sharing the immense pride of being Argentine.<\/p>\n

“I also want to congratulate Spain on winning the championship.”<\/p>\n

Messi contributed eight goals and four assists as Argentina reached the final for the third time in the past four World Cups.<\/p>\n

He played a key role in his side coming from behind to beat Egypt and England in the knockout stages, but could not overcome a Spain side that conceded one goal in the whole tournament.<\/p>\n

Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who was shown a second yellow card in second half injury time for a late challenge on Pau Cubarsi, wrote on social media that he and his team-mates had “defended these colors with pride, humility, and commitment”.<\/p>\n

Fifa’s disciplinary committee has appointed a disciplinary and ethics prosecutor to investigate<\/a> altercations between both sets of players at the full-time whistle.<\/p>\n

“For years, this group has represented us in the best possible way. It teaches that competing isn’t just about winning; it’s about giving your all for the jersey and never giving up,” Fernandez added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi says “the pain is immense” and that it “will take time to heal” after Argentina lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-702418","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}