Argentina has lost its greatest player. Lionel Messi announced his retirement from the national team on Monday (31), closing a run of 20 years, 207 matches and 125 goals. The decision came six weeks after the 1-0 loss to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final on July 19.
Messi broke the news in a letter posted on his social media. According to Folha de S.Paulo, he wrote the text on July 21, two days after the final. "It was a decision that hurt and still hurts my soul, but I understand this is the moment," he wrote, adding: "I gave everything of myself. I have nothing left to offer."
In the letter, Messi pointed to a new generation of "great kids" who deserve their chance with the team and thanked fans for two decades of support. He said he will miss hearing his countrymen from the pitch and promised to become "just another" supporter of the Albiceleste, as the Argentine squad is known, watching from outside the field. "It was crazy to live all of this with you," he wrote.
The numbers of an era
According to ge, the sports outlet of Brazil's Globo group, Messi leaves the national team with 125 goals in 207 matches, 21 of them in World Cups. His trophy shelf holds one World Cup (2022), two Copa America titles (2021 and 2024), the Finalissima (2022), the intercontinental clash between the champions of South America and Europe, Olympic gold (2008) and an Under-20 World Cup (2005). At the 2026 World Cup, aged 39, he scored eight goals and set up four more.
On the pitch, his exit forces Argentina to redesign its attack. Messi used to drop between the lines to receive facing goal and then choose between shooting or serving his teammates, playing striker and playmaker in one shirt. No player in the current squad combines both roles at that level, so the rebuild will likely be a collective one.
Tributes arrive at once
The first to speak out was Rodrigo De Paul, Messi's teammate at both Inter Miami and the national team.
"Just thank you, the greatest of all time. Thank you for making us so, so happy. You cannot imagine how many smiles you brought. You are eternal," De Paul wrote.
Argentine newspaper Ole printed "Thank you Lionel Andres Messi. Thank you so much for everything" across its pages, while broadcaster TyC Sports called the farewell a global bombshell. Giuliano Simeone, who played the 2026 World Cup alongside the number 10, shared a video tracing Messi's journey with the national team.
The announcement ended weeks of uncertainty. About three weeks earlier, in an emotional farewell letter to his father and agent Jorge Messi, who died in early August aged 68, the striker had already said he had "many doubts" about playing football for much longer. "I do not know what I will do without you. I do not know how to go on," he wrote at the time, according to Folha.