The Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, 39, announced this Monday his retirement from the Albiceleste team and explained: “I have emptied myself, I no longer have more to give and in addition there are very big guys coming back who deserve to be there.”
“After this time that has passed since the final, thinking about it a lot, I want to inform everyone that I am retiring from the national team,” Messi wrote on his Instagram social network profile, less than two months after the defeat against Spain in the 2026 World Cup final.
The MLS Inter Miami forward explained that “it was a decision that hurt and hurts in the soul” but stressed that he understands that “it is time.”
«There is little left and stages are closing and this is one that hurts me a lot. I love, loved and will always love being in the national team. I emptied myself, I no longer have more to give and besides, there are very big guys coming back who deserve to be there,” added the footballer, champion with the Albiceleste in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and two-time champion of America (2021 and 2024).
Messi, top scorer in the history of the Argentine national team, emphasized that he leaves the national team “with the tranquility and pride” of having given the fans “dream moments.”
“I swear to you that I always left everything, not just the last few years when everything was won, before too and I always fought and left everything for this shirt, to give them joy and make them feel proud of being Argentine through football,” he expressed, while thanking the Argentines “for all the love of these 20 years.”
“Thank you God for making me Argentine,” concluded the star, who revealed in his publication that he wrote this farewell message two days after the World Cup final and highlighted that, after the death of his father at the beginning of this month, he finally convinced himself to leave the national team.
Messi played more than 200 games with the Albiceleste shirt, in which he scored 125 goals and registered 68 assists.
Thank you Leo!
