Lionel Messi retires from international soccer: Total stats, goals, and caps with Argentina

Lionel Messi has retired from international soccer, closing a 21-year career with Argentina that rewrote the record books. The 39-year-old announced his decision on August 31, weeks after Argentina lost the World Cup final to Spain, and he will play his farewell match on Tuesday, October 6, against Benin at the Monumental in Buenos Aires.

Heading into it, he has 207 caps, 125 goals and 68 assists, making him the most-capped player and the all-time leading scorer in the history of the national team.

Messi made his senior debut on August 17, 2005, in a friendly against Hungary in Budapest, where, incredibly, he was sent off less than a minute after coming on as a substitute. Seven months later, on March 1, 2006, he scored his first goal for Argentina against Croatia, and he kept scoring for the next two decades.

His 125 goals came in 54 friendlies, 36 South American World Cup qualifiers, 21 World Cup matches and 14 Copa América games, an average of 0.60 per game. He passed Gabriel Batistuta as Argentina’s top scorer during the 2016 Copa América Centenario, and his total is now more than twice Batistuta’s 56. Only Cristiano Ronaldo, with 146 for Portugal, has scored more international goals.

Six World Cups and a record book of his own

Messi’s six World Cups, from Germany 2006 to this summer’s tournament in North America, produced some of the biggest numbers the competition has seen. He holds the records for matches played (34), wins (23) and assists (12), and his 21 goals rank second all-time, behind only Kylian Mbappé’s 22.

He is also the only player to win the Golden Ball twice, in 2014 and 2022, and in Qatar he became the first to score in the group stage, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and final of the same World Cup. Even in his last tournament, at 39, he scored eight goals with four assists and became the oldest Argentine to score at a World Cup.

His mark at the Copa América is just as unusual, with 39 matches across seven editions, the most in the history of the tournament, and 14 goals, which leave him tied for fifth on the all-time scoring list. In South American qualifying, his 36 goals in 72 matches are the most ever scored in that competition.

The wait that ended at the Maracana

For years, the one thing missing from Messi’s résumé was a senior title with Argentina. He lost finals at the Copa América in 2007, 2015 and 2016, and at the 2014 World Cup. After the 2016 loss to Chile, he briefly retired, saying the national team was not for him after losing two consecutive finals. However, he returned that same year to keep fighting with Argentina and try to win a title.

The drought ended in 2021, when Argentina beat Brazil 1-0 at the Maracana to win the Copa América, its first senior title in 28 years. From there, the trophies came one after another: the 2022 Finalissima with a 3-0 win over Italy at Wembley, the World Cup in Qatar after a 3-3 draw and a penalty shootout win over France in which he scored twice, and the 2024 Copa América with a 1-0 extra-time win over Colombia.

Counting the 2005 Under-20 World Cup, where he won the Golden Ball and Golden Boot, and the 2008 Olympic gold medal, he won six titles in an Argentina shirt.

One last night at the Monumental

Messi has worn the captain’s armband since 2011, and on Tuesday he will wear it for the last time. The match against Benin, which sold out in under two hours, will be his 208th and final appearance for the national team, a farewell his teammates and the country have been preparing for weeks.