Will Lionel Messi announce his international retirement after Argentina’s Copa América final?

Nearly 19 years on from Lionel Messi’s first appearance for Argentina, the desire to lead his nation to glory burns just a brightly.

Messi, widely-acknowledged to be the greater player of all time, was forced to wait 16 years to lift his first piece of silverware with the national team. During those barren years there were painful losses, near misses and four unwanted runners-up medals.

But after finally breaking the duck at the 2021 Copa América and following that up with the following year’s World Cup, Argentina are now on the brink of a third consecutive tournament triumph. Messi may be 37 but he has insisted that he has no plans to make Sunday’s Copa América final against Colombia his final outing for Argentina.

“As I’ve said before, I intend to continue,” Messi said, after the semi-final win over Canada. “I intend to keep living day by day without thinking about what will come in the future or whether I’ll continue or not. It’s something I just live each day. I’m 37 years and only God knows when the end will be.”

What did Lionel Scaloni say about Messi’s Argentina future?

When Lionel Scaloni took charge of the Argentinian national team in 2018, initially on a interim basis, the team was reeling from a chastening early elimination from the 2018 World Cup. Scaloni had no senior managerial experience and was dismissed by Argentina legend Diego Maradona as “a good guy, but he can’t even direct traffic.”

And yet it is Scaloni who has overseen the recent Copa América and World Cup successes, ending Argentina’s 28-year wait for silverware, and who has delivered the team to another final. As head coach he has built a team that gets the best out of Messi, while avoiding becoming overly reliant on the veteran star. No matter the score on Sunday, Scaloni wants Messi to remain a part of this Argentina team.

“We don’t want to retire him early, we don’t want to start crying now,” Scaloni told reporters ahead of the final. “We have to let him play and then we will see if we can convince him to stay with us, but so far he’s here and he has to enjoy this moment.”

In one sense, Sunday’s final could provide the perfect finale for Lionel Messi career with the national team. After ending Argentina’s trophy drought and lifting the World Cup, a third consecutive triumph would provide a final layer of polish on his glittering international career. But, for now at least, it looks like Messi’s star will continue to shine in the blue and white of Argentina.