By Paul Nicholson
June 27 – Lionel Messi has hung up his international boots, his last act for Argentina being missing a penalty in the final shoot out last night that saw Chile win the Copa America Centenario in the US.
Fantastically successful in Europe with club side Barcelona, Messi has won four Champions League finals and eight La Liga titles. He became Argentina’s highest ever goal scorer last week with 55 goals – he played 113 times for his country.
He has been the Ballon d’Or World Player of the Year five times and in 2014 was voted player of the tournament at the World Cup in Brazil. Argentina lost in the final to Germany.
But the pain of never winning the big international finals seems to have become too much.
“For me, the national team is over.” he said. “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…I think this is best for everyone. First of all for me, then for everyone.
“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.
“It’s very hard, but the decision is taken. Now I will not try more and there will be no going back,” he said.
Messi could be followed by a mass exodus from the Argentine team. Sergio Aguero, Javier Mascherano, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel di Maria, Lucas Biglia, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Ever Banega are all rumoured to be on the point of quitting.
The result could be disastrous for a federation that this week had its own administrative control taken away from it by FIFA who inserted a normalisation committee and suspended president Luis Segura after allegations of corruption concerning the rights of a domestic TV deal.
That intervention has been suggested as having affected the players prior to the final. With Segura not present it is unclear who will be on hand to take the lead to pick up the national team pieces, and players, to encourage them to continue with their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign which is reaching a crucial phase.
Argentina currently lie third in CONMEBOL qualification, two points behind leaders Uruguay with a crucial round of games coming up. The top four teams qualify with the fifth playing off against the top team from Oceania.
With Brazil currently outside the World Cup qualifying positions and Argentinian football on the verge of imploding, there is an outside chance the Russia 2018 World Cup could end up without two of its shiniest jewels.
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