Argentine legend Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from Argentina duty after winning 207 caps. The 39-year-old, who made his Argentina debut in 2005, won the World Cup in 2022 and was a runner-up this summer and in 2014. He also secured two Copa Am\u00e9rica titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Messi wrote in a statement: \u201cIt was a decision that hurt \u2013 and still hurts deep down \u2013 but I understand that the time has come. I swear to you that I always gave it my all \u2013 not just in these last few years when we won everything, but before that too; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Messi said he had written his retirement statement on 21 July, two days after the World Cup final, and that the death last month of his father, Jorge, had confirmed it was the right moment to publish it and end his international career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Messi wrote a statement after his father\u2019s death saying he had \u201cquite a few doubts\u201d about whether he would keep playing \u201cfor much longer\u201d. He revealed then the extent to which he had struggled in Argentina\u2019s World Cup final defeat by Spain. \u201cMy legs couldn\u2019t go on any more,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis time I tried to push myself beyond my \u200bphysical limits, but I couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Messi plays for Inter Miami, where his contract runs to 2028. He scored four goals in a Major League Soccer match for the first time last Saturday to \u2060inspire a 7-1 thrashing \u2060of CF \u200bMontreal.
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Argentine legend Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from Argentina duty after winning 207 caps. The 39-year-old, who made his Argentina debut in 2005, won the World Cup in 2022 and was a runner-up this summer and in 2014. He also secured two Copa Am\u00e9rica titles. Messi wrote in a statement: \u201cIt was a decision …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":64486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64487,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64484\/revisions\/64487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}