Messi’s Legendary Argentina Career Nearly Ended in Heartbreak

Lionel Messi’s Argentina career nearly ended before its defining victories arrived. The player now regarded as a national legend once announced that he no longer wanted to continue after a run of painful defeats.

Messi had already become a giant of club football with Barcelona. Between 2004 and 2021, he won 10 La Liga titles, seven Spanish Cups, seven Spanish Super Cups, four Champions League titles, three UEFA Super Cups and three FIFA Club World Cups. He also won the Ballon d’Or eight times and scored 91 goals in 2012, including 50 in the 2011-12 La Liga season.

International football brought a different story. After making his senior debut against Hungary in 2005, Messi helped Argentina reach the 2007 Copa America final, where Brazil won 3-0. He failed to score at the 2010 World Cup, when Argentina went out in the quarterfinals, and the team suffered the same fate at the 2011 Copa America against eventual champion Uruguay.

The disappointments intensified at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Argentina had gone 21 years without a major trophy, and the team reached the final, only to lose to Germany in extra time. Argentina then lost the Copa America finals in 2015 and 2016, producing three final defeats in three years. After the 2016 loss, Messi said he did not want to be part of the cycle anymore, although he later returned.

The eventual payoff transformed his standing at home. Two Copa America titles and the 2022 World Cup restored Argentina to the top of international football and elevated Messi to the status of fellow countryman Diego Maradona. His final Argentina campaign ended with another dramatic defeat, as Spain beat the team in extra time in July in New Jersey, denying him a storybook finish without diminishing the legacy he built.