EAST RUTHERFORD -Lionel Messi sensationally announced his retirement from worldwide football here Sunday after Argentina crashed to an upset defeat against Chile in the final of the Copa America. “I’ve done all I can, it hurts not to be a champion”, the five-time World Footballer of the Year said after the match at the MetLife Stadium here on Monday. “The national team is over for me”, he declared, barely holding back the tears which had flowed freely after the game.
Advertisement
After beating the United States 4-0 in the Copa America semi-finals on Tuesday, the team were due to fly from Houston to New Jersey on Thursday for Sunday’s final against Chile. “That’s the way I feel right now, it’s a huge sadness once again and I missed the penalty that was so important”, he told reporters.
“For me, the only thing Leo’s words were good for is to cover up all the disasters there are in Argentine soccer”. As an issue of first criticalness for me, and after that for everybody. “I think there’s a lot of people who want this, who obviously are not satisfied, as we are not satisfied reaching a final and not winning it”. Their 2-0 win against Colombia in the semi-final was also impressive.
– 55 worldwide goals, most in Argentina history.
The decision by the 29-year-old, who surpassed Gabriel Batistuta as his country’s highest goalscorer last week, shocked his teammates, who said they hoped his decision was not irrevocable.
Messi, meanwhile, is expected to return to preseason with Barcelona in Spain, where it should be another successful season for him at the club level.
Maradona, regarded as one of the all-time footballing greats, has called on Messi, whom he coached during his time as national team boss between 2008 and 2010, to play on at the 2018 World Cup.
Argentina fans have been critical of Messi for not bringing the country a championship. “I tried many times [to be a champion] but did not”.
Messi has never won a major title playing for Argentina. Now I will not try more and there will be no going back. He is no hothead – the decision to retire would have been thought about long and hard before reverberating across the world.
Advertisement
That, together with three losses in World Cup finals, would drive anyone to consider stepping away from the game in the heat of the moment.
