Signing you in

Over the course of his illustrious career, Messi has broken several records, retiring as the greatest among the pantheon of Argentina’s legendary football players. Here are some of the big ones that he finishes with:

Messi retires with 207 international appearances, the highest for Argentina by some distance, with the second highest being Javier Mascherano’s 147. It is the second highest number of appearances for any player in international football, only behind his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo’s 233 games for Portugal

Messi has scored 125 international goals, which is more than double that of the next highest scorer for Argentina – Gabriel Batistuta’s 54 goals. Once again, it is the second highest of all time in international football, with the highest being Cristiano Ronaldo’s 146 goals.

Messi has played in six World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026), which is tied for the most with Ronaldo.

He has scored 21 goals across these six World Cups and briefly held the record for most goals scored in the history of the tournament at this year’s edition. France’s Kylian Mbappe crossed that record later in the same edition.

Messi has both scored and missed the most number of penalties in World Cup history. He has scored seven and missed three. He is also the only player to have started three World Cup finals (2014, 2022, 2026) and became the oldest outfield player to have started a World Cup final this year at the age of 39 years and 25 days.

Overall, Messi has scored 35 goals across the major international tournaments that he was eligible to play in (World Cup and Copa America), which is the most for any player across the world.