An emotional farewell in his own handwriting, written two days after the defeat in the 2026 World Cup final against Spain, but published on August 31, made official a farewell that was already anticipated: Messi has decided to leave his time with the Argentine team behind. His departure occurs at the best historical moment of the team, which has won the last two editions of the Copa América and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, in addition to being a finalist in 2026. This is the review of 22 legendary years.

First modification: 08/31/2026 - 20:54 Last modification: 09/01/2026 - 00:36

Ezequiel Lavezzi and Maxi Rodríguez. Two unforgettable names in the Albiceleste imagination for what they gave to the national team, but above all for the stage to which they paved the way. Lionel Messi replaced Lavezzi in his first official match with his country's shirt, and Rodríguez in his World Cup debut. His arrival unleashed the golden era of Argentine football.

This August 31, Messi put an end to 22 golden years, during which he played 207 games, scored 125 goals (more than double that of Gabriel Omar Batistuta, who follows him on the list) and gave 68 assists, more than any other player dressed in those colors.

The farewell letter was written two days after the defeat against Spain in the World Cup final, but was published two days after a performance that showed that there is still fire in Messi's boots, the four goals and an assist he scored in Inter Miami's 7-1 victory over Montreal in the MLS.

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In the period between one moment and the other, Messi lost his father, Jorge, probably the most decisive man at the beginning of his career as a Barcelona youth player, at just 13 years old.

“Today after what happened to my dad, I am more convinced than before,” explains the legendary striker in the postscript of his publication on Instagram, the only phrase that does not appear in the manuscript with which he accompanied his farewell.

Read also "I emptied myself, I no longer have more to give": Lionel Messi retires from the Argentina National Team

Goodbye and a new beginning

It is his second retirement from the team, with the same scenario as a backdrop: a loss in the final of a tournament at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. The first occurred in 2016, when Argentina fell to Chile in the penalty shootout of the Copa América del Centenario title.

Messi was coming off the painful defeat in the final of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil against Germany in the final, and in the shootout from the 12 steps against the southerners he missed his shot. By that time, the pressure due to the inability to win major titles as an albiceleste seemed to overwhelm him, and Messi felt a clear demand: to make a difference with his country as he did at that time with Barcelona.

"There are four finals that I have to lose, that we have to lose... It doesn't happen, we try, we look for it, but that's it. The national team is over for me," he told the media as soon as he left the locker room, without having discussed it with the team.

It was just six weeks of frustration, because on August 12 of that same year he announced in a statement his return to play in the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. That tournament would be his last bad moment dressed in albiceleste, with an early elimination by a landslide against France, because after that the golden era would come, always with Messi as a differential factor.

That return allowed him to become the hinge that connected several generations of the national team and to take on the leadership that was always demanded of him. Enzio Fernández's farewell letter on Instagram makes it clear how this process was experienced.

"I was a kid and I did the math with your age and mine to see if one day I would get to play with you. It seems stupid, but I really did it: I thought about how many years you could have left, how many more I had left to reach First Division and I dreamed that, even just once, we could wear the Argentina shirt. Luckily you came back," wrote Fernández, who accompanied Messi among the Qatar 2022 champions.

Messi's golden era

After the failure in Russia, Argentina triumphed in the 2021 Copa América, defeating regional archrival Brazil in the final, at home, in an empty Maracaná due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In that tournament, Messi became the active player with the most free kick goals (surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo), the all-time top scorer for his team (surpassing Batistuta) and the one who had played the most games for the Argentine national team (ahead of Javier Mascherano's 147).

It was Argentina's first victory in the tournament since 1993, a 28-year drought that ended thanks to him: nine of the team's 12 goals in the tournament had some participation from Messi, either because he scored them or because he assisted the scorer.

Then he had his great moment: a 2022 World Cup in which he was the best player, the second top scorer (with seven goals, only surpassed by Kylian Mbappé's eight) and he earned his eighth Ballon d'Or, one of the most difficult records to break that he leaves after a career that almost has them all.

In that tournament he surpassed Maradona as the Argentine who wore the captain's armband the most times, he became the player from his country with the most goals in World Cups, leaving behind Batistuta's 10 and the eight shared by Guillermo Stábile and Diego Armando Maradona.

In 2024, he once again led Argentina to win the Copa América, beating Colombia in the final played at the Hard Rock stadium in Miami and becoming the all-time top assister of any team in the world.

Few expected the surprise that Messi had in store for the 2026 World Cup, at 39 years old, becoming one of the three players with six World Cups in his career, along with the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo and the Mexican Guillermo Ochoa.

With a hat trick in his debut against Algeria, he equaled Miroslav Klose as the all-time top scorer in the World Cup. A double against Austria allowed him to provisionally surpass it and the free kick against Jordan made him the first to win seven consecutive games in the World Cup, surpassing the Brazilian Jairzinho and the Frenchman Just Fontaine.

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In the end, he was surpassed by Kylian Mbappé both in the North American 2026 scoring table and in the historical classification of the World Cups, but collectively he went further than him, reaching the final after epic comebacks that bore his stamp.

An uphill start

Leaving the national team has been as difficult for Messi as it was entering it. His departure to Barcelona at just 13 years old left him far from the radar of several national coaches.

In 2003, his father Jorge sent the coach of Argentina's lower divisions Hugo Tocalli a video with the youngster's best plays during his first years at La Masía, FC Barcelona's prodigious talent academy, but Tocalli did not take it into account for the U-17 World Cup in Finland.

Nor did he call him up for the U-20 World Cup that same year, which was held in the United Arab Emirates. By then, the Spanish Federation had already made several offers for him to agree to defend the colors of La Roja, which Messi had rejected.

It was José Pekerman who opened the doors of the national team for him in 2004. At that time he was working as coordinator of national teams and proposed to the then president of the AFA, Julio Grondona, to summon the young Rosario prospect to a friendly, as a way to beat Spain.

Five days after turning 17, Messi took the field to replace Lavezzi and added a goal and two assists in a match that ended 8-0 against Paraguay.

His official debut was six months later with the U-20 team in the South American category, again entering for Lavezzi. That same year, he won his first title with Argentina: the U-20 World Cup crown. His country of origin thus discovered the young star of La Masía who was already dazzling in Spain.

Three years later, he brought a new loot: the gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The event generated litigation between FC Barcelona and the AFA before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, due to the club's refusal to give Messi up for a tournament that is not part of the official FIFA dates, and prompted the intervention of the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge.

Finally, although the CAS ruled in favor of the club, the board negotiated the transfer with the AFA and Messi ended up being the key piece in the victory, assisting Ángel di María for the winning goal over Nigeria.

“I only know that I was born in the correct century to be able to see you, enjoy you and, above all, be able to share with you all these years of the national team,” wrote Di María, who retired from the national team after the triumph in the Copa América 2024.

National team football surely shares the feeling of 'Fideo', as the curtain falls on a theater in which Messi was an undisputed star.

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