Lionel Messi announces his retirement from the Argentine national team

Nobody imagines Messi without the ball, surely not even the player himself, now 39 years old and after scoring four goals with Inter Miami against Montreal in the MLS. And yet, the feeling is that he is beginning to say goodbye to football after the announcement that he is retiring from the Albiceleste. It was not known very well how he would manage the last defeat in the final against Spain that left many Argentines so badly, until Messi himself anticipated and announced that there would be no more games with a team that he led to win the World Cup in Qatar 2022.

That reign and, of course, the love of the game, extended the international career of a forward who took a long time to be loved in Argentina. Many of his compatriots thought he was as close to Barça as he was a stranger to the Albiceleste. The cold-chested label made a fortune even after it was learned that from a very young age he gave up playing for Spain to serve in Argentina and that he even put the winning of Olympic gold in 2008 over the Barça team with the consent of Guardiola. Nothing and no one has resisted Messi, least of all his compatriots, Maradona's emotional slaves.

Like Diego, Leo also ended up defeating England and also won the World Cup. Perseverance and continuity have been two unmatched constants in a journey with a final point as painful as the debut when he was sent off as soon as he entered the field against Hungary. Messi became loved by his teammates and his coach and later was loved by the Argentines for his commitment, for his loyalty and for a unique talent in the world, possibly the best player of all time, 10 by definition, the number that resists a football industry that no longer numbers shirts from 1 to 11.

Articles about Messi have been repeated for a long time, always with the same words and in the present tense, regardless of who writes them, even though he always scored the same goal, a goal as repeated as it was expected because it was unique, impossible for other footballers, genuinely Messi. From now on, however, we will begin to talk in the past about his link with the Albiceleste. Life begins to be different for that boy from Rosario who always lived attached to his father Jorge. The death of his father has left Leo eternally in pain.

The father always accompanied a son who now finds it difficult to walk alone, so much so that he has decided to say goodbye little by little, now to the national team and later surely to Miami and then possibly return to Barcelona and take care of Cornellà. The wound that opened his body due to the dismissal from Barça still needs to be healed. The cry for the forced departure to Paris still resonates in many corners of the Camp Nou although he had previously asked to be allowed to leave Barcelona of his own free will. The contract with Miami ensures that he will play until 2028. Right now, however, it hurts to imagine Argentina without Messi.