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Lionel Messi announced his retirement from the Argentina national team on Monday, ending a 21-year international career in which he won the 2022 World Cup, the 2021 and 2024 Copa Americas and the 2022 Finalissima. He finishes as Argentina’s record scorer and record appearance-maker with 125 goals and 60 assists in 207 matches. His final appearance was the 2026 World Cup final, lost 1-0 to Spain after extra time. He continues to play for Inter Miami, where his contract runs to 2028.
Buenos Aires, Argentina: Lionel Messi wrote the letter on 21 July, two days after the World Cup final. He published it on Monday, six weeks later.
In between, on 8 August, his father and lifelong agent Jorge died. Messi said that loss confirmed what the notebook pages already said. He wrote that the decision hurt and still hurts, that he always gave everything for the shirt, and that there are young players coming through who deserve the place.
207 Caps, 125 Goals
He debuted in August 2005 against Hungary, came off the bench, and was sent off inside a minute for an elbow he insists he did not throw. His first goal came the following March, in a 3-2 friendly defeat to Croatia.
He leaves 21 years later as his country’s most-capped player and its leading scorer, with 125 goals and 60 assists in 207 appearances — 185 goals he had a direct hand in. Only Cristiano Ronaldo, on 146 in 233, has more of either in men’s international football. Of the 125, he scored 111 with his left foot, 12 with his right, two with his head and one off his torso. He made 11 hat-tricks for Argentina.
Six World Cups
He played in all of them from 2006 to 2026 and reached three finals — 2014, 2022 and 2026 — which only Cafu had managed before him.
His 21 World Cup goals briefly made him the tournament’s all-time leading scorer this summer before Kylian Mbappe passed him and finished on 22. In knockout matches he scored seven and set up ten across 17 appearances. In the 2022 final he scored twice and became the first player to score in three different knockout rounds of a single World Cup. He won the Golden Ball in 2014 and again in 2022, the only man to win it twice.
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The 2026 tournament gave him eight goals, second in the Golden Boot race, and a hat-trick against Algeria in the opening match at 38 years and 357 days, which Guinness recorded as the oldest World Cup hat-trick.
Then the final in East Rutherford. Enzo Fernandez was sent off for a second yellow in stoppage time, Argentina became the first side to fail to register a shot in 90 minutes of a World Cup final, and Emiliano Martinez made 11 saves — a record for the fixture — before Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute. Spain had 1.94 expected goals to Argentina’s 0.20.
The Copa America Years
For a long time this was the tournament that defined the argument against him. He lost the final in 2007, then in 2015, then in 2016.
Then it changed completely. He won it in 2021 at the Maracana, Argentina’s first major title in 28 years, and again in 2024 in Miami, becoming the first captain to win consecutive editions. He was named the tournament’s best player in 2015 and 2021. He retires as its most-capped player, with 39 appearances across seven editions, though his 14 goals sit behind the record 17 shared by Norberto Mendez and Zizinho.
There was more besides: gold at the 2008 Olympics, the Finalissima against Italy at Wembley in 2022, and, before all of it, the 2005 Under-20 World Cup, where an 18-year-old won the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot and scored both goals in the final against Nigeria.
He Did This Once Before
In June 2016, after Argentina lost the Copa America Centenario final to Chile on penalties — Messi missing his — he announced he was done with the national team.
That lasted about six weeks. A public campaign, led by Diego Maradona and the country’s president, changed his mind, and in August he told Edgardo Bauza he was available for the World Cup qualifiers. Everything that followed, the trophies and the vindication, came after the retirement he took back.
This one reads differently. He is 39, he would be 43 by the 2030 World Cup, and he wrote that he has nothing left to give.
Still Playing for Miami
At club level nothing changes. He remains Inter Miami’s captain with a contract through the 2028 MLS season, and he scored four goals in a 7-1 win over CF Montreal on Saturday — his first four-goal game in the league. He leads MLS with 18 goals this season.
He said he will watch the next World Cup as a supporter, from the outside, in the good times and especially the bad.
Lionel Messi — Argentina career
Appearances 207 · Goals 125 · Assists 60 · Debut August 2005 v Hungary
Major honours: World Cup 2022; Copa America 2021, 2024; Finalissima 2022; Olympic gold 2008; U-20 World Cup 2005
Runners-up: World Cup 2014, 2026; Copa America 2007, 2015, 2016
World Cup: 6 tournaments, 21 goals, Golden Ball 2014 and 2022
Final appearance: Spain 1 (Ferran Torres 106′) Argentina 0, World Cup final, 19 July 2026
