Bengaluru: After mesmerising the football world for a little over two decades and winning nearly every accolade the sport had to offer, Lionel Messi brought an end to an extraordinary career by announcing that he was done playing for Argentina.
The news had been brewing ever since Argentina lost to Spain 1-0 in the FIFA World Cup Final in July, a tournament where the 39-year-old dished out another age-defying performance with eight goals - just two shy of this generation's superstar Kylian Mbappe.
It became even clearer when his father Jorge Messi - the person behind his talismanic rise from a kid struck by growth hormone deficiency in Rosario to one of the greatest sportspersons ever to grace the planet - passed away on August 7. A distraught Messi then revealed that even he didn't know how much football was left in him.
Lionel Messi announces retirement from international footballMessi may have lived most of his life in Spain, starting with his association with Barcelona where he first made his mark, but Argentina was closest to his heart. Despite his club accolades, Messi couldn't quite replicate the same with La Albiceleste during his early years. And there were constant comparisons with the enigmatic Maradona.
And when Argentina lost the 2016 Copa America final to Chile, Messi decided enough was enough. He did reverse his decision rather swiftly, and since then had been operating at a different level. He went on to win two Copa Americas and the all-important FIFA World Cup in Qatar 2022. It was the greatest day in his life, leaving no scope for deliberation on who the Greatest Of All Time of this era was.