Argentina holds tearful public farewell after Lionel Messi announces international retirement
Argentina issued a tearful public thank-you to Lionel Messi after he announced his retirement from international football on Instagram on Monday, following the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina in New Jersey on 19 July.
Lionel Scaloni wept at his post-match press conference after that final, and several of Messi’s teammates and compatriots have said the tears reflected an end to an eight-year cycle rather than the pain of a single match. Messi’s Instagram announcement included photos of three handwritten sheets of headed paper and a Harry Potter Time Turner pen, posted to the soundtrack of Brindis sung by Soledad Pastorutti. Cristian Romero wrote: "How crazy that the day has come, dear Leo," while Giovani Lo Celso posted: “The day no one wanted to arrive has arrived,” adding he had “nine years listening to you, admiring you and learning by your side”.
Team-mates recalled childhood dreams of meeting Messi and the surreal experience of actually playing with him; Nico Paz said since he was four he “used to watch you play with my dad and we would calculate together whether I would be in time to play with you”.
On a Buenos Aires street corner volunteers placed a red telephone with a sign reading: “What would you say to Messi?” Passersby answered: “I’m 86 years old and you have given me the greatest joys in my life. You will be in my heart until the day I die,” one man said; a young boy “burst into tears even though I was at school”; a well-spoken woman said “we will miss you because you are an extraordinary being”; a little girl said “you’re the best and the greatest”; an old man signed off “bye, son”.
Influencers, journalists and commentators joined the public outpouring. The veteran sportswriter Matías Martin wrote “Messi led by example,” and the coach and motivational speaker Matias “Coco” Gallo Bevegni posted that the World Cup winner “taught me more in defeat than in victory”. The pundit Morena Beltrán could not hold back the tears as she explained to her older colleagues that for her generation there is a sense of mourning and emptiness which can only be filled by gratitude, which maybe they have already experienced, because they have seen another God. Psychoanalyst Milagros Filgueras praised the handwritten note, saying some goodbyes need the body involved, while the journalist Pablo Perantuono devoted his column to the “epistolary genre”, calling a handwritten letter today an almost counter-cultural act of originality.
The writer Andrés Burgo noted that in 10 of the past 12 World Cups either Maradona or Messi played, and described the moment as the “end of an era in which grandparents, parents, sons and daughter and grandchildren enjoyed an incredible privilege during almost 45 years. The heir will arrive – we hope – but right now is a time of orphanage. And gratitude”. Messi revealed the letter was written two days after the final and that on Monday, after “[what happened with] my dad” he felt more convinced. The note said: “it’s a decision that hurt and continues to hurt,” and the poet Valeria Correa Fiz pointed out he originally wrote “I think”, crossed it out and replaced it with “I understand”. The article reports Messi saying he always gave his all and that he has nothing left to give.
The piece also records that the 39-year-old scored four goals for Inter Miami at the weekend and will continue his club career; he is not retiring from playing football but from Argentina. The broader context cited includes scandals surrounding the Argentinian Football Association, pressure by some lobbies to privatise football clubs, and international furore from several World Cup incidents that have left Argentina facing hefty fines, sanctions and suspensions.
With two international dates coming up and no rival agreed, the clarification that there will be no Messi in the squad will impact on potential fixtures and on selection for those matches.