No fairytale ending, but Messi leaves defining legacy for Argentina

The record eight-times Ballon d’Or winner leaves as a World Cup winner and twice Copa America champion, the man who stepped out of Diego Maradona’s immense shadow to create an Argentine legacy entirely his own.

Defeat by Spain in this year's World Cup final denied Messi the perfect farewell and the chance to become a world champion for a second time. But after a career that transformed Barcelona, Argentina and the modern game itself, there was precious little ​left to prove.

Four years earlier in Qatar, he lifted the trophy he had pursued throughout his career, scoring seven goals in the tournament and twice in the final against France ​before Argentina prevailed on penalties. It was the crowning moment of a remarkable career, and also the culmination of one of football’s most compelling stories ⁠of perseverance.

For all his success at Barcelona, where his brilliance brought him every major individual and collective honour available, Messi’s relationship with the Argentina shirt was for years defined as much by what ​he had not won as by what he had achieved.

He reached the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil only for Argentina to lose to Germany in extra time, before successive Copa America final ​defeats in 2015 and 2016 deepened the sense that international glory might elude him. Devastated Messi.

After the second of those defeats, against Chile on penalties, a devastated Messi briefly walked away. "The national team is over for me," he said. It was not.

Messi returned and, gradually, the story changed. Read More:Fact box: A look at former Argentina forward Lionel Messi's career. Under Lionel Scaloni, Argentina built a team around their captain without becoming entirely dependent on him, surrounding their ageing number 10 with the energy, aggression and collective commitment that allowed ​his genius to flourish.

Argentina's Lionel Messi during the match against Spain on July 19. PHOTO: REUTERSThe breakthrough came at the 2021 Copa America, when Argentina beat Brazil at the Maracana to give Messi his first major senior international trophy.

The World Cup followed 18 months later. Messi ​was magnificent in Qatar, producing goals, assists and moments of inspiration as Argentina recovered from a shock opening defeat by Saudi Arabia to reach the final.

He scored twice against France before converting his penalty in the ‌shootout, finally ⁠lifting the trophy that had become the missing piece in his claim to stand alongside, or above, the greatest players in the sport. For Argentina, the triumph also completed Messi’s transformation.

Shy teenager. The shy teenager who had left Rosario for Barcelona at 13, and was sometimes portrayed at home as more Catalan than Argentine, had become the unquestioned leader of the national team. The tears and frustration of earlier failures gave way to songs, murals and celebrations.

The comparisons with Maradona did not disappear, but they no longer carried the same accusatory weight. Messi had become Argentina’s Messi. He could have stopped then.

Instead, he played on, ​moving from Paris St Germain to Inter Miami ​and helping Argentina retain the Copa America ⁠in 2024 before one last tilt at the World Cup. By 2026, the explosive acceleration that had once left defenders helpless had inevitably faded but Messi adapted.

He walked more, waited more and chose his moments, conserving his energy while younger legs worked around him. Yet the essential qualities remained: the awareness of ​space, the weight of a pass and the capacity to alter a match with a single touch.

Argentina, meanwhile, had changed with him. Battle-hardened team. The ​team who reached the July ⁠19 final were no longer merely a collection of players looking to Messi for salvation.

It was an experienced, battle-hardened side accustomed to winning and shaped by years of playing alongside their captain. That evolution allowed Messi to extend his international career far beyond what once appeared possible and to leave the game on his own terms.

His numbers place him among the giants of international football, but statistics alone did not ⁠tell the ​story of his journey from expectation to rejection, then heartbreak to adoration. For years, every defeat was presented as evidence of ​what separated him from Maradona.

By the end, the argument had become largely irrelevant. One carried Argentina to the World Cup in 1986. The other, after years of trying, did so in 2022 and returned four years later to take his ​country to within a hair's breadth of another title.

He walks away from his national team as a man who played a defining role in Argentina's football history.