Messi Makes a U-Turn on International Retirement

Prayers of all the football lovers have now been answered with Messi coming out of retirement to once again dawn the blue and white stripes of Argentina...

- Himanshu Dhingra

For the second time in two years, Argentina came perilously close to winning the Copa America title but were once again denied by Chile on penalties, just like in 2015. However, June 26th may not be known for La Roja’s heroics against a star-studded Argentina but for the announcement that nearly half the Albiceleste side had allegedly decided to retire from International football.

The list of retirees included some stellar names but none of them come close to the best player in the world, that being Lionel Messi. So as things stood Messi would have retired without winning anything major with his country, having won almost every- thing with his club Barcelona, both individually and collectively. To add to the misery, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has had four consecutive finals with his country where he has now come out on the losing side, and in the aftermath of the latest final defeat Messi had this to say,

“For me, the national team is over, I’ve done all I can. It hurts not to be a champion.”

“It’s been four finals, I tried,”

“It was the thing I wanted the most, but I couldn’t get it, so I think it’s over”. One can understand the pain that a player who has done it all and won it all with his club Barcelona must be feeling after these continuous defeats. Travelling around the world to represent your country and yet having nothing to show, takes its toll on everyone and let’s not forget despite what he does on the pitch, Messi is only human.

Although the reasoning behind the retirement seems fair, there were murmurings that the retirement of the 29-year-old could have been because of other reasons.