{"id":222670,"date":"2026-09-01T00:18:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/lionel-messi-announces-retirement-from-argentina-national-soccer-team-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T00:18:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:18:54","slug":"lionel-messi-announces-retirement-from-argentina-national-soccer-team-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/lionel-messi-announces-retirement-from-argentina-national-soccer-team-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi announces retirement from Argentina national soccer team – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREAKING: Verdict reached in rapper Tupac Shakur\u2018s murder trial <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Lionel Messi has played his last game representing Argentina, the soccer star announced<\/a> Monday.
The 39-year-old Messi\u2019s retirement from the national team comes 20 years after his first appearance and ends a career with La Albiceleste <\/em>that saw him score 125 goals and add 68 assists in 207 matches.
Messi played in six World Cups, winning in 2022 and playing in the 2014 and 2026 finals. He became the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history during the tournament this summer with 21 goals, only for France\u2019s Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 to overtake him with 22 goals.
\u201cI leave with the peace of mind and pride of having given you \u2014together with my teammates \u2014 moments we\u2019d only dreamed of,\u201d Messi wrote on social media<\/a>, in a translation from Spanish. \u201cIt was incredible to have lived through it all with you.\u201d
Messi posted that he wrote the announcement of his retirement two days after Argentina\u2019s loss to Spain in July\u2019s World Cup final, and after a pause that included mourning the death of his father, \u201cI\u2019m more convinced than ever\u201d it was time to take off Argentina\u2019s famed blue-and-white-striped kit.
\u201cIt was a decision that hurt \u2014 and still hurts \u2014 deep in the soul, but I understand that it\u2019s time,\u201d Messi wrote. \u201cI swear to you that I always gave it my all \u2014 not just in recent years, but even before we won everything \u2014 and I always fought hard and gave everything I had for this jersey, to bring you joy and make you proud to be Argentine through soccer.\u201d
\u201cThere\u2019s not much time left, and chapters are coming to a close \u2014and this is one that hurts me deeply. I love, have loved, and will always love being on the national team. I\u2019ve given it my all; I have nothing left to give, and besides, there are some truly great young players coming up who deserve their spot,\u201d he wrote.
\u201cThank you for all the love over these 20 years. I\u2019m going to miss hearing from you all so much from the sidelines. Now I\u2019ll be just one of you, always cheering and supporting from the sidelines (through the good times and the bad \u2014 especially the bad),\u201d he said.
Messi continues to play professionally for the MLS club Inter Miami.
While playing for the giant Spanish club Barcelona, Messi quickly found success and rose to prominence as a transcendent talent in the early 2010s. His path with his national team was rockier, however.
Messi was best known for leading Argentina to major finals such as the Copa Am\u00e9rica, the storied tournament between South American nations, and the 2014 World Cup, only to lose. After his third Copa Am\u00e9rica final defeat in 2016, a loss that included a penalty miss by Messi in a shootout, Messi said<\/a>, \u201cFor me, the national team is over. I\u2019ve done all I can. It hurts not to be a champion. … It was the thing I wanted the most but, I couldn\u2019t get it, so I think it\u2019s over. I think this is best for everyone.\u201d
Only weeks later, Messi reversed course and recommitted to playing for his nation.
\u201cI see there are many problems in Argentinian football, and I don\u2019t intend to create another one,\u201d he said in 2016<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t want to cause any damage. I\u2019ve always tried to do just the opposite, to help all that I can.\u201d
\u201cWe need to fix many things in Argentinian football, but I prefer to do this from inside and not criticize from outside,\u201d he said.
Messi\u2019s inability to lead Argentina to titles early in his career even earned criticism from Diego Maradona, the Argentine legend who led the country to the World Cup title in 1986 and later coached Messi with the national team. Both wore the No. 10 jersey, and Messi was constantly compared to Maradona.
\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t deify Messi any longer,\u201d Maradona said in an interview with Fox Sports<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s Messi when he plays for Barcelona. Messi is Messi when he wears that shirt, and he\u2019s another Messi with Argentina.\u201d
The national team\u2019s fortunes did not change overnight with Messi\u2019s return in 2016, including an exit in the round of 16 in 2018 and a third-place finish in the 2019 Copa Am\u00e9rica. Once international soccer resumed following Covid-related delays, however, Argentina and Messi won the 2021 Copa Am\u00e9rica and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and repeated as Copa champion in 2024.
His World Cup performance this summer showed that Messi\u2019s gifts for scoring had not been degraded by age. His eight goals were second only to Mbapp\u00e9 for the tournament, and Messi added four assists, as well.
Andrew Greif is a sports reporter for NBC News Digital.\u00a0
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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BREAKING: Verdict reached in rapper Tupac Shakur\u2018s murder trial news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeLionel Messi has played his last game representing Argentina, the soccer star announced Monday. The 39-year-old Messi\u2019s retirement from the national team comes 20 years after his first appearance and ends a career with La Albiceleste that saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}