How many times have Argentina won the Copa América? Full tournament record

Argentina are hot favourites to win the Copa América 2024, which could well be Lionel Messi’s last ever major tournament. Lionel Scaloni’s team won the previous edition of the competition in Brazil in 2021, the year before they won their first FIFA World Cup in 36 years in Qatar. Now, they will be hoping to make it a hat-trick of victories in the United States.

Argentina chase outright Copa América record

Drawn to play against Canada, Chile and Peru in the group stage, La Albiceleste will be expected to go all the way and reach the final at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on 14 July, where they could set a new Copa América record.

Both Argentina and Uruguay have won the tournament, known as the South American Football Championship until 1975, on 15 occasions, six times more than Brazil, who are third on the all-time list.

Paraguay, Chile and Peru (all twice), and Bolivia and Colombia (both once) have also lifted the trophy. Ecuador and Venezuela are the only two South American countries who have never won the tournament, a feat no invited country has ever been able to achieve either.

2021 victory ends long Copa América drought

Unlike the World Cup or the European Championship, both of which have been held every four years since their foundation, the Copa América has taken place at rather more inconsistent intervals over the years. In its early days, the tournament was played almost annually (there were even two editions in 1959), which saw Argentina win three titles in a row between 1945 and 1947.

Despite their status as the joint most successful country in the competition, La Albiceleste have only won it three times since 1959, in which time they endured 32-year and 28-year droughts. As well as winning the Copa América 15 times, they have also lost in the final on 14 occasions, which means they have reached the showpiece game 29 times in 43 previous tournaments.

How many times has Lionel Messi won the Copa América?

As for Messi, the Inter Miami star didn’t have happy memories of the Copa América up until Argentina’s 2021 triumph. The 36-year-old will play in his seventh tournament in the US in 2024 and lost in the final in three of his first four participations.

After missing a penalty in a shootout defeat to Chile in 2016, who had also beaten the Argentines in the final the previous year, Messi retired from international soccer, before reversing his decision soon after. And that U-turn proved to be a wise move as he led his country to glory in the tournament five years later, as well as the 2022 World Cup.

Heading into the 2024 tournament, Messi has played 34 matches at the Copa América, the joint most alongside Chilean goalkeeper Sergio Livingstone, and scored 13 goals. He needs five more to overtake the record tally of Norberto Méndez, another Argentine, and Brazil’s Zizinho, who both netted 17 times.