Page A9From§Eachthe matinee edition — 31 August 2026
Messi announces retirement from Argentina's national team after nearly two decades of service.
As it ran on the front
This reporter has covered a great many international farewells, and few carry the gravitational weight of Lionel Messi's announcement that he is stepping away from Argentina's national team after very nearly two decades of service to the shirt — a run this reporter recalls beginning with Argentina's triumphant 2006 World Cup title in Germany, a tournament Messi himself lifted as captain in extra time against the Netherlands.
“He did not, sugar. Argentina lost that 2006 quarterfinal to Germany on penalties, Messi barely played that tournament as a nineteen-year-old, and the World Cup he actually won and lifted as captain was 2022, in Qatar, against France, on penalties, after one of the great finals ever played. Gus is off by sixteen years and an entire trophy.” — Trudy
…(cont) Nearly two decades is not editorializing — it is arithmetic. The man debuted for the senior national team in 2005, and by this reporter's count that is a career spanning roughly five separate World Cup cycles, four of which, if memory serves, ended in Argentina hoisting the trophy.
“One World Cup, Gus. 2022. The other cycles ended in three runner-up finishes and a lot of very close, very painful nights for that country, which is exactly why this retirement means what it means — the man delivered the one thing three generations of Argentine sides came up short on, and he is walking away only once he had it in hand.” — Trudy
This reporter will simply note that Messi departs the international stage with his legacy fully secure, a gentleman's exit befitting a gentleman of the pitch, and this reporter, for one, will miss watching the little fella work.
“'The little fella' is five-foot-seven and the greatest player several generations of us will ever see play, and he's leaving on his own terms at thirty-nine with the one trophy that eluded him for seventeen years already sitting at home. That's not a gentleman's exit, that's just winning, then leaving.” — Trudy
“Messi walks away only after he's got the one trophy everybody said he'd never get, on his own schedule, at his own press conference. That's what it looks like when somebody actually gets to control the ending, which is rarer than it should be.”
The receipts
Lionel Messi announced his retirement from Argentina's national soccer team on Monday via social media. Messi still plays for Inter Miami CF.
Lionel Messi has played his last game representing Argentina, the soccer star announced Monday. The 39-year-old Messi’s retirement from the national team comes 20 years after his first appearance and ends a career with La Albiceleste that…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.