A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Lionel Messi, arguably one of the greatest soccer players of all time, will no longer play for Argentina's national team. In a handwritten note posted on Instagram, the 39-year-old wrote that the decision hurts his soul. Messi led Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022. He's also won the South American championship, the Copa America, twice.
So let's talk about - more about his remarkable career with Simon Kuper. He's a sports columnist with the Financial Times and author of "Soccernomics" and "World Cup Fever." Simon, other players have announced their international retirement and then later returned to play for their country. Is this really it for Lionel Messi?
SIMON KUPER: Well, he also announced his retirement a decade ago. His first years with Argentina were unsuccessful. He retired in 2016 and quickly unretired. I think this is it, though. He's 39. There's no history of a player of that age being still great. He is still great, but is he going to be great in the next World Cup when he's 43? He doesn't think so. I think he's really done. He won a World Cup in 2022. He achieved everything he wanted.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. That's the difference - right? - how you go out. You either go out on top - 'cause I guess if Messi - this is indeed it, he's still going out on top, right? That's how it's going to be remembered.
KUPER: Very close to the top. I mean, he had a brilliant World Cup. He scored eight goals. He carried his team - Argentina, a very flawed team - to the final, and there they were outclassed by Spain. And I think it was the best he could have done. His highlight is lifting that World Cup in Qatar four years earlier when he was 35. Even then, it seemed he was too old to be the best, and he still was. So if you've won a World Cup, I think you can go out without any regrets.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And when they did lose that last game, it looked like it really hurt Messi. But I think we found out after the fact that his father was having some health issues, and his father has since passed away. How much do you think all that factored in his decision?
KUPER: It was very important. I mean, he refers to it on Instagram - that, you know, after his father died, he knew it was the right decision. I feel - I mean, he lived very much under the sway of his father. His father ran his whole business career. Messi has always remained in this very tight Argentinian family clan, first in Barcelona, then in Miami. And I feel that he feels he's now at the start of a kind of - a new life with his wife and three sons in Miami.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Messi has scored more goals for Argentina than any other player. Is there one that stands out to you? I mean, you've got 125 to choose from.
KUPER: I mean, he scored in the last World Cup final. You can't get much better than that. It's really that Messi's goals have just become the backdrop to our lives. He did it with such ease. I mean, Kylian Mbappe said he would just pass the ball into the net. He'd cut in from the right, hit it with the left, into the top corner. This tiny man - apparently, without any effort, it would just float to exactly that place.
MARTÍNEZ: You know, when I was growing up in the '80s, it was all about Diego Maradona for Argentina. And now there's Messi, and he thanked God for making him Argentinian. Any way to put into words his significance to Argentina?
KUPER: I think he's become the kind of patron saint of the country. I mean, Argentina is in economic decline and has been for many decades. It's a country that has sort of disappointed its inhabitants. And Argentinian nationalism now is very much about football. And the saint of that is Messi, alongside Maradona in the pantheon. It's maybe the only country in the world which is represented fully on the global stage by its football.
MARTÍNEZ: And someone else eventually will wear No. 10, right? I mean, that's the way it works.
KUPER: There can't be another Messi.
MARTÍNEZ: You - yeah. Not Messi, but another 10 - No. 10. Simon Kuper is a sports columnist with the Financial Times. Simon, thanks a lot.
KUPER: Thank you. Goodbye.
(SOUNDBITE OF STANDARDS & FLORAL'S "COCONUT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
