Lionel Messi announces retirement from Argentina national soccer team

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 saw him score 98 goals and add 38 assists in 142 matches.

Messi played in six World Cups, winning in 2022, and playing in the 2014 and 2026 finals, as well. He became the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history during the most recent tournament this summer with 21 goals, only for France’s Kylian Mbappe to later overtake him with 22 goals.

“I leave with the peace of mind and pride of having given you —together with my teammates — moments we’d only dreamed of,” Messi wrote on social media, in a translation from Spanish. “It was incredible to have lived through it all with you.”

Messi posted that he wrote the announcement of his retirement two days after Argentina’s loss to Spain in July’s World Cup final, and after a pause that included mourning the death of his father, “I’m more convinced than ever” it was time to take off Argentina’s famed blue-and-white striped kit.

“It was a decision that hurt—and…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/sports