Lionel Messi, regarded as one of the greatest footballers to have played the game, announced his retirement from international football on Monday, August 31. With this, he called time on a glorious career that spanned over 20 years and was bejeweled with a World Cup win and two Copa America titles.
Apart from these triumphs, Messi has also set numerous records for individual awards including eight Ballons d’Or, six European Golden Shoes, and being named the world’s best player by FIFA eight times. In addition to it, he is also the most decorated player in the history of professional football, having won 46 team trophies.
Messi happens to be a citizen of both Argentina and Spain and was eligible to play for both the teams. The 39-year-old began his career with Argentina’s U20 team in 2004 and made it to the 2005 South American U-20 Championship. His debut for the senior team came in 2005 at the age of 15, and he went to score his first international goal in 2006 in a friendly against Croatia.
Messi became the youngest representative and a goal scorer for Argentina in 2006 during the FIFA World Cup. His first individual recognition came at the 2007 Copa America, where he scored two goals and provided one assist.
Here, let’s dive into his international career stats and see exactly what makes Lionel Messi a distinguished footballer.
Lionel Messi’s Career Stats
Lionel Messi ended his career with Argentina football team as their all-time highest scorer and most-capped player with 207 games and 125 goals in 21 years. His last game for La Albiceleste was the 1-0 defeat to Spain in the World Cup final 2026 on July 19. Messi’s career included three major international triumphs, which include a World Cup win and two Copa America titles.
He was involved in 185 goals directly and scored 125 of them, while assisting 60. 111 of his goals came with his left foot, while 12 of them came with right, two with his head and one with his torso. Apart from it, Messi became the leading scorer in men’s World Cup history for a brief amount of time during this summer’s tournament in North America. He was shortly overtaken by Kylian Mbappe with 22 goals, while Messi has 21.
The 39-year-old holds the most World Cup appearances with six editions and 34 appearances. He has also won the most games with 23, has had 12 assists as well as most goals from outside the penalty area with 6.
According to ESPN, he happens to be the only player to have started three World Cup finals (2014, 2022, and 2026) and is also the oldest outfield player to play in a World Cup final at the age of 39 years and 25 days. Interestingly, Messi announced his retirement just over 21 years after he made his debut with the national team on August 17, 2005 against Hungary.
