Messi calls time on Argentina career after World Cup final heartbreak

Lionel Messi has confirmed his retirement from international football, bringing to a close a 21-year Argentina career that yielded a World Cup title and cemented his status as the country's greatest-ever player.

The 39-year-old, who lifted the World Cup as captain in Qatar in 2022, leaves as Argentina's all-time leading scorer and most-capped player, with 125 goals in 207 appearances, Lorraine McKenna writes for the BBC.

In a statement posted to social media, Messi said the decision had been painful but that the moment had arrived, adding that he felt he had “nothing left to give” at international level and wanted to make way for a promising crop of younger players.

He revealed he had written the retirement message on 21 July – two days after Argentina's defeat to Spain in this year's World Cup final – but delayed publishing it following the death of his father, Jorge, who died aged 68 after a long illness. Messi said the loss had strengthened his resolve to step away.

His club career continues uninterrupted as Messi remains under contract to Major League Soccer side Inter Miami until the end of the 2028 season.

Messi's international debut, in 2005, was inauspicious – he was sent off less than a minute after coming on as a substitute against Hungary, following a coming-together with a Hungarian defender. What followed was one of the sport's most decorated careers, including two Copa América triumphs alongside the 2022 World Cup win. He finishes second on the all-time World Cup scoring list with 21 goals, one behind France's Kylian Mbappé, and second among all-time international goalscorers behind long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 146.

This is not the first time Messi has walked away from the national side. He announced his international retirement in 2016 after Argentina lost the Copa América final to Chile on penalties, a decision he later reversed.

At this year's World Cup, Messi scored eight goals and provided four assists, taking his career tally of World Cup assists to 12 – ten of them in knockout matches, more than any other player on record.

In closing his statement, Messi thanked Argentina's supporters for two decades of support, saying he would continue to follow the national team “from the sidelines and describing the experience of representing his country as one of pride and fulfilment.