Lionel Messi: Career, Records and Argentina Farewell (2026)

Lionel Messi spent the first week of October 2026 saying goodbye to Argentina and the second week scoring twice for Inter Miami. The 39-year-old played his 208th and last match for his country on 6 October, a 3-0 friendly win over Benin in Buenos Aires, then returned to Major League Soccer, where he leads the scoring charts and is chasing a third straight Most Valuable Player award.

This profile follows him from a youth team in Rosario to Barcelona, Paris and Florida, and sets out what is confirmed about the end of his international career and what is still open.

Quick facts

• Full name: Lionel Andrés Messi
• Born: 24 June 1987, Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina
• Height: 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
• Position: Forward and playmaker
• Current club: Inter Miami, captain, number 10, contract to the end of the 2028 season
• International record: 208 caps, 126 goals and 70 assists for Argentina, 2005 to 2026
• Major honours: FIFA World Cup (2022), Copa América (2021, 2024), four Champions League titles, ten La Liga titles, MLS Cup (2025)
• Individual awards: Eight Ballons d’Or, six European Golden Shoes, MLS MVP (2024, 2025)

Early life and the move to Barcelona

Messi grew up in Rosario and joined the local club Grandoli as a small child. At around seven he moved to Newell’s Old Boys, where he played in a youth side known as “The Machine of ’87” after the birth year of its players. He scored close to 500 goals in about six years there.

At ten he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. The treatment was expensive, and the cost became the reason his family looked abroad. Barcelona offered a trial in September 2000, when he was 13. In a story widely told, sporting director Carles Rexach wrote a first contract on a paper napkin that December. The family moved to Catalonia in early 2001 and Messi entered the La Masia academy.

Barcelona: the first great decade

He made his first-team league debut on 16 October 2004 at the age of 17 and scored his first senior goal on 1 May 2005. Under Pep Guardiola from 2008, Barcelona built their attack around him. That season they won the league, the cup and the Champions League, the first treble in Spanish football.

The records followed. He won the Ballon d’Or in four consecutive years from 2009. In 2011-12 he scored 73 goals in all competitions, and in 2012 he scored 91 for club and country in a calendar year, a mark that had stood since Gerd Müller. In the 2014-15 season he formed the “MSN” attack with Luis Suárez and Neymar, and Barcelona won a second treble.

By the time he left he held the club records for goals (672) and for La Liga goals (474). He was named captain in 2018. His exit in August 2021 came after Barcelona said that financial rules and the league’s salary limits made it impossible to re-sign him, and he spoke tearfully at a press conference at Camp Nou.

Paris Saint-Germain

He joined Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year deal in August 2021. His first season in France was quiet by his standards, with six league goals, but the second was productive: 16 goals and 16 assists in Ligue 1 as PSG took the title again. He won two league titles in Paris and left in the summer of 2023.

Inter Miami and Major League Soccer

Inter Miami announced his signing on 15 July 2023. The effect on the league was immediate. Matches sold out, his shirt became the best seller in MLS, and in his first season he led the club to its first trophy, the Leagues Cup. He won his eighth Ballon d’Or in October 2023.

In 2024 Miami set a regular-season points record and won the Supporters’ Shield, and Messi was named league MVP. In 2025 he won the MLS Golden Boot with 29 goals and 19 assists in 28 league games. Miami won MLS Cup 3-1 against Vancouver, with two assists from Messi, and he was named MVP again, the first player to win the award in back-to-back years. He signed an extension through 2028 on 23 October 2025.

In 2026 he scored his 900th career goal, on 18 March in a CONCACAF Champions Cup draw with Nashville. Miami appointed Argentine coach Cristian “Kily” González in September and won the Campeones Cup on 16 September.

According to ESPN, his two goals in a 3-1 win at Atlanta United on 17 October took his season total to 25 league goals and 15 assists. That is a six-goal lead in the Golden Boot race. Miami had already secured a playoff place and sit second in the Eastern Conference. Their next game is at the New York Red Bulls on 24 October.

Argentina: from lost finals to the World Cup

Messi won the 2005 Under-20 World Cup, where he took the Golden Ball, and the Olympic gold medal in 2008. For years the senior team did not follow. Argentina lost the 2014 World Cup final to Germany, and then the 2015 and 2016 Copa América finals to Chile. After the second of those losses he announced his retirement, and a public campaign persuaded him to return.

The wait ended in 2021 with the Copa América, followed by the Finalissima against Italy in 2022. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar he scored seven goals, including two in the final against France, and won the Golden Ball for a second time. He added a second Copa América in 2024.

The 2026 World Cup was his sixth. FIFA’s records list him as a Silver Ball winner as the tournament’s second-best player, and he finished with eight goals. Argentina lost the final 1-0 to Spain after extra time on 19 July, with Ferran Torres scoring in the 106th minute.

The farewell

On 31 August he announced his retirement from international football, saying he had nothing more to give. Coach Lionel Scaloni said the door was open if he changed his mind. Argentina asked him back for one last match. At the Monumental on 6 October, wearing a special commemorative kit, he set up Nicolás Otamendi from a corner, laid on a goal for Nico Paz, and scored the third himself from a penalty in the 71st minute.

He ends as Argentina’s record holder for appearances (208), goals (126) and assists (70). He also holds the World Cup record for appearances, with 34.

Playing style

Messi is left-footed and low to the ground, which gives him balance and quick changes of direction. As he has aged he has moved into deeper positions, where his passing and his reading of the game do much of the work. He is also known for free kicks.

Honours and recognition

He holds eight Ballons d’Or, the last in 2023, and eight FIFA best-player awards. He was named Laureus Sportsman of the Year in 2020 and 2023 and Time’s Athlete of the Year in 2023. He has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2010, and the Leo Messi Foundation, set up in 2007, funds health care, education and sport for children. In January 2025 he received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Controversies

In July 2016 a Spanish court found Messi and his father guilty of tax fraud over sponsorship income earned between 2007 and 2009. Both received suspended prison terms of 21 months and were fined. Messi told the court he had trusted his father and the lawyers. His decision to become a tourism ambassador for Saudi Arabia in 2022 drew criticism over the country’s human rights record.

What we could not verify

• How many trophies he has won. Sources count between 47 and 49 depending on whether certain Supercopa and MLS conference titles are included.
• The exact career goals total. Counts vary slightly between sources, and ESPN gave 936 after 17 October.
• Whether he will reach 1,000 career goals. His coach has said he can, but that is an opinion, not a fact.
• Whether he will play on after 2028. Reports describe the Inter Miami deal as reviewed year by year.
• Any plan to play in the 2030 World Cup. He has not announced one.
• His earnings, wealth and private family life, which we do not publish.

Career timeline

• 2000: Trial at Barcelona; moves to La Masia in 2001.
• 2004: League debut for Barcelona at 17.
• 2008-09: First treble; Olympic gold with Argentina.
• 2021: Leaves Barcelona; wins the Copa América.
• 2021-23: Paris Saint-Germain, two Ligue 1 titles; wins the World Cup in 2022.
• 2023: Joins Inter Miami; wins the Leagues Cup and his eighth Ballon d’Or.
• 2025: MLS Cup and second MVP award.
• 2026: World Cup runner-up; final Argentina match on 6 October.

Sources

• ESPN
• Associated Press
• BBC Sport
• Al Jazeera
• Inter Miami CF
• FIFA
• FC Barcelona
• Wikipedia