Robert M Honicky

[Yamalzito𓃵 @CollinsRyu0]

Someone's Goat btw 😂

[george @StokeyyG2]

Fair enough, Messi just settled the GOAT debate himself…👏🤣

[TyC Sports @TyCSports]

Leo, escuchá una cosa: lamentamos decirte que no va a ser posible

[LM10 Brasil @MessiLeoBrasil_]

Quando Lionel Messi marcou esse golaço e homenageou Maradona! 👏🏼🐐

[Messi archive 🇦🇷 @messi_archive10]

GREATEST OF ALL TIME 🐐

[Ataque Futbolero @AtaqueFutbolero]

El mensaje del ESCUDO DE LA SELECCIÓN ARGENTINA para Lionel Messi.

Simplemente hermoso. 🥹🇦🇷

[Messi out of Context @OutMessi_]

Esto sí que nunca lo había visto

Sus primeras presentaciones con la camiseta albiceleste fueron en dos amistosos sub 20 en 2004 con 17 años. Ante Paraguay en Bs. As. y Uruguay en Colonia.

[MessiXtra @MessiXtraHQ]

We love you Today.

Tomorrow.

And for the rest of our lives.

[All About Argentina 🛎🇦🇷 @AlbicelesteTalk]

💝 Celia Cuccittini, Leo Messi's mother:

“I’m still crying. Even though we already knew, the whole family is very sad. But the important thing is that he’s happy.”

"His dad always used to say: ‘What am I going to do when he doesn’t play anymore?’ And everything happened at once. Incredible..." @AmericaTV

[ESPN Podcasts @espnpodcasts]

"The toughest thing for him... was filling the boots of Maradona... he's won."

The @ESPNFC crew react to Lionel Messi's retirement from international football.

[All About Argentina 🛎🇦🇷 @AlbicelesteTalk]

🚨✉️ Leandro Paredes' letter to Leo Messi 🥹

“I thought I was already prepared for this news, but clearly I wasn’t 😔

"THANK YOU,

"For everything you did for me as an Argentine, as a fan of the national team, as a teammate and as a friend! ❤️

"Words are not enough when it comes to you, your legacy and your greatness as a player, but above all as a person. I’m lucky to have played alongside you during this beautiful journey with our national team, with your national team 💙🇦🇷

"I love you, little man! I hope you’re always very happy! Our country will always be grateful to you for everything you made us experience!!! 🏆🏆🏆🏆"

[ESPN.com.mx @ESPNmx]

Durante 20 años entregó todo por conseguir su más grande sueño: ganar la Copa del Mundo con Argentina.

Gracias, Leo. Te vamos a extrañar.

[Иacho ® 🇦🇷🔴⚫️ @NachoCavallo74]

Señor, gracias por poner en palabras lo que siento.

[Chino @ChinoUTD]

🚨 Rodrigo De Paul on Lionel Messi retiring from Argentina:

🗣️ Reporter:
“What changes for Argentina now that Messi is gone?”

🗣️ De Paul:

“We have to learn normal football again.

For years, when a game became difficult, you could give Leo the ball and suddenly the problem belonged to the other team.

You could be tired. You could be losing. The manager could be preparing a tactical change. Then Leo receives the ball, three players go towards him and somebody who was marked five seconds ago is suddenly standing alone.

That became normal to us.

I think that’s what we’ll miss most. Not only the goals. Sometimes you’d make a run you probably shouldn’t make because you knew if there was one person on the pitch who could still find you, it was him.”

🗣️ Reporter: “So what happens the first time Argentina are struggling without him?”

🗣️ De Paul: “Probably what happens to every other national team. The coach will actually have to solve it.”

[ESPN.com.mx @ESPNmx]

🥹 Momento de recordar las palabras del Diego para Leo Messi:

"Diviértete que vas a ser el mejor de toda la historia"

[Vfynn_🥷🏼 𐙚 @Vfynn_]

🚨 Lionel Messi on why he had to retire from international football with Argentina:

🗣️ “I didn’t want this to be the last one. I never wanted to put a date on it. I always said the same thing: as long as I can help, as long as I feel I belong on the pitch with these boys, I keep going.

Then July happened. And August happened.

The final… it still sits in my chest. Not because we lost. We lost before. We lost in 2014, we lost finals that felt like the end of the world. This one was different because I knew, walking off that pitch, that I had given everything I still had. My legs were empty. My head was empty. I looked at the kids in the dressing room and I thought: they still have years. I don’t.

My dad had asked me to play this World Cup. He kept asking even when he was getting worse. ‘Play it, Leo. One more. I want to see you there.’ I told him we were going to the final so he could travel. He never made it. When I got home he thought we had lost on penalties. We never even got to talk about what actually happened. He didn’t get to enjoy any of it.

That shirt… that shirt asked a lot from me for twenty years. I gave it everything I had. Copa América, Finalissima, Qatar, this last dance in America. I cannot look at these teammates and pretend I still have the same fire every single day. They deserve a captain who is not carrying two goodbyes at the same time — one from a final we couldn’t win, and one from the man who walked me to every training session since I was a boy.

I am not running away. I am not angry with football. Football gave me a life I never imagined. But I only ever knew how to play. And right now I don’t know how to keep doing the only thing I ever did without him sitting somewhere, watching, suffering, never saying much.

The national team is not over because we lost a final. It is over because the person who made me put that shirt on every time is gone, and my body and my heart are telling me the same thing at the same moment.

I will always be Argentine. That does not change. The next time they sing the anthem I will be the first one standing. But it will not be me wearing the 10. It is time for them. They are ready.

Thank you to Scaloni, to every teammate who carried me when I could not speak, to every person who screamed my name even when I failed them. I tried. I really tried.

Now I need to go home and learn how to live without the two things that defined me: the ball, and my dad.”

[The Touchline | 𝐓 @TouchlineX]

🚨 𝗡𝗘𝗪: Rodrigo de Paul on IG:

“There is one thing I have always wished for all these years: for every Argentine to know who you really are.

Who you are when there are no cameras, no stadiums, when you’re simply you, just as you are.

You never liked that much; you always felt that your boot was the best way to express yourself, and that the pitch was the place where you had to prove everything you feel for your country.

And I was lucky to see everything behind that.

Every training camp, every night before a final, the pressure, the fear, the doubts, and the criticism. I saw you go through moments that would have been too much for anyone to bear, then get up the next day and keep going, without excuses, without blaming anyone, without needing to explain who you are.

Because the one thing that never changed in you is your love for this shirt and this country. A love that made you get up time and again when it seemed there was nothing left to prove.

And for that, what you did for the national team goes far beyond the goals and titles we won… even though there were so many!

I always wanted people to admire you for your personality, not just for what you do. Those of us who know you know you’re great on the pitch, but off it, you’re so much greater.

And I think Argentina finally knows that today.

I don’t know if there’s ever been a love story this big between a player and a country, like the one you built. That I got to live it by your side, I’ll carry that with me my whole life.

Seeing you walk ahead of us with the number 10 shirt and the captain’s armband made us feel like you were protecting us, and that no matter what happened, there was someone up front who would give everything for us.

And we did it, brother.

We were world champions. 🏆🇦🇷

And as the years go by, I’ve realized that the most beautiful part might not have been just lifting that cup.

But that we never stopped being ourselves. The laughs, the trips, the training camps, and those things no one saw, which for me were the most important part of this whole story.

What a beautiful moment it was for me to be by your side in one of the most important moments in our history.

Thank you for everything you did for us and for Argentina.

Thank you for letting me know the Leo I always wished everyone could know; the Leo who doesn’t need the number 10 shirt, or the captain’s armband, or even a pitch, to be a giant.

I love you, brother.”

[CONMEBOL Copa América™️ @CopaAmerica]

¡Todos los goles del GOAT con @Argentina! 🇦🇷
Lionel Messi 🐐⚽

[Globe Data @data_globe]

🇦🇷 Lionel Messi — 12 Most Unique Individual Records

1. 🥇 8 Ballon d'Or Awards — the most in football history.
2. 🌍 2 FIFA World Cup Golden Balls — the only player ever to win the award twice.
3. ⚽ 91 Official Goals in a Calendar Year (2012) — the all-time record
4. 👟 6 European Golden Shoes — more than any other player.
5. 🇪🇸 50 La Liga Goals in One Season (2011/12) — the competition's single-season scoring record.
6.🔥 Scored in 21 Consecutive La Liga Matches — an extraordinary league scoring streak.
7. 🏟️ 672 Official Goals for Barcelona — the most goals ever scored for a single club at the club's official-record level.
8. 🏆 8 Pichichi Trophies — the most La Liga top-scorer awards.
9. 🌎 34 FIFA World Cup Appearances — the most individual appearances in World Cup history.
10. 🎯 Scored in 9 Consecutive World Cup Matches — the longest scoring streak in World Cup finals history.
11. 👑 Scored in Every Knockout Round of a Single World Cup — group stage, Round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final and final; the only player to accomplish this.
12. 🇦🇷 207 Argentina Caps & 125 Goals — both records for Argentina and also the highest totals for any South American men's international player.

[Sky Sports Football @SkyFootball]

Lionel Messi's statement announcing his retirement from international football 🇦🇷📝