Messi retires from international competition with World Cup title, 125 goals

[AP Photo]

Argentina superstar Lionel Messi announced his retirement from international soccer yesterday [Macau time], ending 21 years of national-team duty that were capped by winning the World Cup in 2022 to secure his place in the pantheon of the game’s greatest ever players.

“It was a decision that hurt — and still hurts deeply — but I understand that the time has come,” the 39-year-old Messi said on his Instagram account.

Messi, who will continue to play at club level with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, played in a record-tying six World Cups. He won it four years ago in a tournament he dominated in Qatar and also led Argentina to the title match in 2014 and again this year, when the Albiceleste lost to Spain in extra time in New Jersey.

Messi stands shoulder to shoulder with Diego Maradona, a compatriot with whom he was so often compared, and Brazil icon Pelé as the greatest players of all time.

For many, he’s the best.

“I swear to you that I always gave it my all — not just in these last few years when we won everything, but before that too,” Messi wrote. “I always fought and left everything on the field for this jersey, to bring you joy and make you feel proud to be Argentine through football.”

Messi played 207 games for Argentina and finishes as its all-time leading scorer with 125 goals, 21 of them in World Cups. Only one player has more goals in men’s internationals — his long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 146 and has yet to announce his retirement from Portugal duty.

Messi became the all-time leading World Cup scorer for a month in the recent tournament in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, but finished one goal behind France’s Kylian Mbappé.

In a long social-media post, Messi explained he wrote his retirement letter on July 21 — two days after the World Cup final in which he struggled to make an impact — but waited to publish it because his father was facing health issues that eventually claimed his life.

Jorge Messi died on Aug. 8 in his native Rosario.

Two months after Messi starred at the 2005 world under-20 championship, scoring both of Argentina’s goals in the final triumph, he was given his senior Argentina debut at 18. MDT/AP