This has been quite the week and a bit for the world of Argentine sport.
It opened with the news that Eduardo ‘Chacho’ Coudet had been put out of his misery at River after an immensely frustrating stint at replacing Marcelo Gallardo, culminating in Wednesday’s Copa Sudamericana failure. We then moved on to hockey, where the Leonas pulled off a stunning World Cup final win over the all-powerful Netherlands to lift the title for the first time since 2010. If that were not enough, another Argentine, Mariano Navone, inflicted Novak Djokovic’s first Grand Slam first-round exit in 20 years after dumping the legendary Serb out of the US Open. Momentous stories all, and under regular circumstances more than worthy of column inches.
These are not regular circumstances, though. Because Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football. We will never again see the greatest football player ever to live in an Argentina shirt, and both his country and the sport as a whole are poorer for that fact.
“There’s not long left and the door is closing on certain times, and this is one that hurts a lot,” the star explained in a handwritten note revealing his decision, no less painful for being wholly expected after July’s World Cup heartbreak and the subsequent passing of his father, Jorge.
“I love being in the national team, I always have and always will. I have emptied myself, I have no more left to give, and there are also some great kids coming up behind who deserve to be there.”
Messi’s long journey with the Selección has come to an end. But what a ride it was. Over 23 years he represented his nation 207 times and scored 125 goals, the most of any Argentina player and bested only by Cristiano Ronaldo in the history of world football. Leo’s immense trophy cabinet includes an enviable range of international gongs: the World Cup, two Copas Américas, an Olympic gold, two World Cup Golden Balls.
But his impact on the nation cannot be measured with cold numbers. It was the story of a singularly talented young man who for years carried Argentina’s frustrations on his shoulders, as his exceptional gifts somehow never proved sufficient to bring home glory. It was that incredible redemption arc already in the twilight of his career, where tasked with anchoring a rejuvenated, hungry Selección he reached new heights to first break that agonising drought in Brazil in 2021 and, a year later, touch the heavens by beating France in Lusail.
It was that captivating journey through the United States played under the toughest of circumstances, with Jorge, his father, mentor and example, battling back home with a serious illness. Closing in on 40 years old, Messi fought through the pain to once more enchant the world of football with his performances, the tears flowing after almost every goal, every win. That Argentina ultimately fell short could do nothing to undermine this last near-superhuman effort, where once more he left everything on the line for a country that took its time to warm to him but ultimately learned to adore the wizard under its nose.
Messi goes out a true legend of Argentine sport, the greatest of all time in his field, and it is a testament to everything he achieved with that exquisite left foot that even after two decades of dominance he still leaves us wanting just a little bit more.
