Lionel Messi said on Monday he is retiring from international football after leading Argentina to a second successive World Cup final in July.
“It was a decision that hurt and still hurts deep in my soul but I understand that it is the right time,” Messi, 39, wrote on Instagram.
“I swear I always gave everything, not just in the last few years when we won everything but before that too, and I always fought and gave my all for this shirt,” he added.
The record eight-times Ballon d’Or winner is his country’s record appearance-maker and scorer with 125 goals in 207 games, having transformed a complicated relationship with the national team into a story of redemption and triumph.
“I leave with the peace of mind and pride of having given you — alongside my teammates — moments we once only dreamed of,” Messi said.
Defeat in this year’s World Cup final by Spain denied Messi a fairytale farewell, but his place among the game’s greats had long since been secured.
After years of disappointment with Argentina, including defeat in the 2014 World Cup final and successive Copa America finals, Messi won his first major international trophy at the 2021 Copa America before leading his country to glory at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
The former Barcelona and Paris St Germain forward who now plays for Inter Miami added another Copa America title in 2024 and arrived at his sixth World Cup hoping to complete an extraordinary final chapter.
A 1-0 loss to Spain ensured that did not happen but Messi, who made his Argentina debut in 2005, walks away having emerged from the shadow of 1986 World Cup-winning captain Diego Maradona to forge a legacy of his own as another defining figure in his country’s football history.
Following the death of his father Jorge in August, Messi had said he had “serious doubts” about continuing to play football of any sort for “much longer”.
Messi’s contract with Major League Soccer club Inter Miami runs until the end of the 2028 season.