Three finals, one World Cup: A look back at Messi’s Argentina odyssey
Lionel Messi announced his retirement from international football on Monday, closing the book on a 21-year Argentina career that stretched from a one-minute red card as a teenage substitute to three World Cup finals as its most decorated captain.
A false start
The story started on the wrong foot. Messi's senior debut, as a substitute against Hungary in August 2005, lasted barely a minute before he was sent off for elbowing an opponent who had tugged his shirt. It was an inauspicious footnote to a career that, by then, had already produced a World Youth Championship — Messi converted two penalties in the 2005 final win over Nigeria.
Argentina's senior side offered little early reward. Messi was a peripheral figure at the 2006 World Cup as Argentina fell in the quarter-finals, and drew a blank altogether at the 2010 edition, where the team suffered the same fate. Olympic gold at Beijing 2008 was the one bright spot in an otherwise frustrating apprenticeship.
Finals, heartbreak, and a retirement that didn't stick
By 2014, Messi was Argentina's captain and its last hope. He scored four goals to win the Golden Ball at that year's World Cup, only to watch Germany deny his country in the final. A second successive final defeat followed a year later, Argentina beaten on penalties by Chile in the Copa America.
The 2016 Centenary Copa America produced one of Messi's most explosive nights in an Argentina shirt — an 18-minute hat-trick off the bench against Panama, then a record-breaking 55th international goal in a rout of the United States. But the tournament ended, again, in a penalty shootout defeat to Chile, and this time Messi walked away, announcing his retirement from the national team. The exile lasted a month.
Redemption
Vindication arrived in stages. A hat-trick against Ecuador secured Argentina's passage to the 2018 World Cup, though a round-of-16 exit in Russia offered little else. Three years later, Messi finally lifted a major trophy with Argentina, driving the team to the 2021 Copa America title and ending a 28-year wait — his fingerprints on nine of Argentina's 12 goals that summer.
Then came Qatar. Messi scored twice in the 2022 World Cup final as Argentina outlasted France to claim a first world title in 36 years, his seven goals and three assists across the tournament making him the first man to win two Golden Balls.
One last dance
Even a World Cup winner's medal wasn't the final word. Messi passed 100 international goals in 2023, retained the Copa America in 2024, and became football's all-time leading assist-provider in men's international football that same year.
At the 2026 World Cup, a 38-year-old Messi turned back the clock one more time — two goals against Austria made him the tournament's outright top scorer, a tally he pushed to 21 before Kylian Mbappe overtook him. Eight goals and four assists carried Argentina all the way to the final, where extra time and a 1-0 defeat to Spain denied him a fairytale send-off. He left the pitch as only the second man to play in three World Cup finals — and the oldest outfield player ever to do so.