How many international games has Lionel Messi played for Argentina? Could he reach 200 caps?

In the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed that Lionel Messi has been in the spotlight due to his upcoming move to Inter Miami, where he will earn more than even the NFL’s best paid stars. The Argentine teased us with what we might call ‘second-tier’ news too, revealing that he probably wouldn’t play in the 2026 World Cup before scoring the fastest goal of his career in Argentina’s friendly win over Australia. However, this week, it’s old foe Cristiano Ronaldo’s turn to hog the limelight, with the Portuguese set to play his 200th game for Portugal in Iceland on Tuesday.

Ever since the Portuguese joined Real Madrid 14 years ago, the comparisons with Messi have been constant. How many league goals? How many Champions League goals? How many career goals? How many hat-tricks? How many Ballons d’Or? How many trophies have they won? How much do they earn?

Ronaldo tops international caps list

The list is endless and now we have a new context in which to measure them against each other. Ronaldo, now 38, became the most capped player in the history of men’s international soccer during the 2022 World Cup in December, overtaking Kuwait’s 196-time capped Bader Al-Mutawa, who himself had only broken the previous record last June.

Former Real Madrid teammate Sergio Ramos and Mexican duo Andrés Guardado and Claudio Suárez also make the men’s top 10. And just one spot and one cap behind 10th-placed Gianluigi Buffon of Italy comes Messi.

Messi and Argentina: from trouble to triumph

The Barcelona legend’s international career will now always be remembered for leading his team to World Cup glory in Qatar. However, Messi had to go through some tough times to get there. After making his senior debut for Argentina at the age of 18 in 2005, the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner was part of teams that lost in Copa América finals in 2007, 2015 and 2016, with a 2014 World Cup final defeat to Germany thrown in there too for good measure.

That 2016 loss, the second year in a row in which La Albiceleste lost to Chile in a penalty shootout, prompted Messi to retire from international soccer after missing from the spot. The very same summer that Ronaldo won the European Championship with Portugal (albeit having gone off injured early on in the final).

But it took Messi all of week to talk about reversing his decision and going back to the grind, which paid off handsomely with his first Copa América title in 2021 and, of course, the World Cup the following year.

How many international games has Messi played? How many goals has he scored?

All in all, the departing Paris Saint-Germain playmaker has played 175 matches for Argentina, scoring 103 goals (his average of 0.59 goals per game is very marginally inferior to Ronaldo’s 0.61 for Portugal, in case you’re wondering…). Messi has played 24 games (and scored 19 goals) fewer at international level but is two years and four months younger.

Can Messi reach 200 international caps for Argentina?

What are the chances of him becoming the second player to reach 200 international caps, then? Although he has all but ruled out the possibility of playing in the 2026 World Cup, during which he would turn 39, the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada is still three years away.

Messi has played 25 games for his country since 10 July 2021, the date of Argentina’s Copa América final win over Brazil and 28 matches in the last 24 months. CONMEBOL World Cup qualification gets underway in September, with the teams involved due to play 18 fixtures until September 2025.

And Messi has already spoken about his desire to take part in an expanded Copa América in the United States 2024, for which he’ll be hoping to be relatively fresh after his first 12 months in Miami. That would be a minimum of three games and a likely maximum of six, while you can also throw the odd friendly in here and there.

Will Messi make it to 200 and join Ronaldo in the club? It’s going to be tight but after 15 years of to-ing and fro-ing between two of the greatest in history, it is surely the only fitting ending.