Since his brief retirement from Argentina in 2016, Lionel Messi has done nothing but dominate

Lionel Messi stood just a few feet away, behind a barrier and under the television lights, when he issued the declaration that might have changed modern soccer forever. It wasn’t clear he had made history at the moment, because he spoke in Spanish and that was long before we all had Google Translate apps on our phones.

Upon returning to the press box less than an hour after Argentina had fallen to Chile on penalty kicks in the final of Copa America Centenario, I found the full text of his quote and used a computer program to translate it to English.

“The national team is ended for me,” Messi said on that night 10 years ago in a tunnel at the ground level of Met Life Stadium. “It is not for me, after four finals. It is the decision I’ve made, I believe that, yes.”

It’s astounding to consider what has happened since Messi “retired” from international soccer at age 29 in June 2016, and perhaps even more fascinating to wonder what the sport would be like if he never had returned to Argentina’s squad.

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From the day in 2005 when he made his national team debut and continuing for more than a decade, Messi had carried the burden of trying to bring Argentina its first World Cup title since 1986 and its first Copa America since 1993.

Although he was winning almost routinely with FC Barcelona at the club game’s highest levels – eight La Liga titles over rival Real Madrid, four UEFA Champions Leagues, five Ballon d’Or wins as the world’s greatest player – the absence of international trophies led many in his native country to dismiss him as unworthy of comparison to the great Maradona. Some publicly doubted his commitment to Argentina, as he'd left for Spain as a teenager and Barca's La Masia academy.

The pain of coming so close so many times and failing was too great for Messi in that moment.

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“It was the thing I wanted most, but I couldn’t get it, so I think it’s over,” Messi said that night. “I think this is best for everyone. First of all for me, then for everyone.

“I think there’s a lot of people who want this, who obviously are not satisfied, as we are not satisfied reaching a final and not winning it. It’s very hard, but the decision is taken. Now, I will not try more, and there will be not more going back.”

Going back didn’t take long. He returned to the national team lineup three months later.

So obviously unretired now, Messi and Argentina face a semifinal Wednesday against England in Atlanta. If they win there, they’ll travel back to New Jersey’s Meadowlands for a Sunday final with a chance to repeat as World Cup champions.

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“What is clear is that he’s giving everything he has," Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni told reporters last week. "When he ⁠gives everything he has and senses that he can create ⁠danger, he is a machine. “Maybe people who don’t know him expected ⁠that at 39 he wouldn’t be at this level, but I don’t know how many times I’ve said it: as ⁠long as he wants to, he will be the ⁠best. I think that, and not because I’m his coach.”

Messi, who had his most recent birthday a couple weeks back, has scored eight goals in this tournament, tied for the lead in the Golden Boot race with young superstar Kylian Mbappe of France. In Saturday’s quarterfinal, Messi conjured his team’s first goal with a perfect corner kick headed home by midfielder Alexis Mac Allister in a 3-1 quarterfinal victory over Switzerland in Kansas City; that became the 10^th assist of Messi’s World Cup career, one more record in a vast collection.

If Argentina were to win the trophy Sunday, Messi would accomplish something no one has in the history of the sport: captain his team to consecutive World Cup championships.

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A couple men’s and women’s teams have won two in a row, but rosters and lineups and leadership structures tend to evolve significantly over the course of four years. With Argentina, nothing really changes so long as Messi is active, other than the identity of the men fortunate enough to serve as his teammates. Only one Argentina player at that 2016 Copa America still is with Messi: defender Nicolas Otamendi, who has been a late sub in the team’s most competitive games at this World Cup.

On the night Messi proclaimed the international game is “not for me”, he had found himself on the losing side of a major tournament final for the fourth time in four attempts: the 2014 World Cup, and the 2007, 2015 and 2016 Copa Americas. That was the third summer in a row he’d lost the championship game, and this time he contributed to the defeat by blowing his penalty kick over the bar in a shootout against Chile.

He also had been at odds with the Argentine Football Association, an organization whose management and player treatment widely was criticized back then and still finds itself under FBI investigation.

Mauricio Macri, then the nation’s president, and Maradona both personally urged Messi to continue. He was back in the jersey during the next FIFA international window.

“I see there are many problems in Argentinian football and I don’t intend to create another one. I don’t want to cause any damage, I’ve always tried to do just the opposite, to help all that I can,” Messi said in a statement as quoted by La Nacion of Buenos Aires.

“We need to fix many things in Argentinian football, but I prefer to do this from inside and not criticize from outside. Many things went through my head the day of the last final and I seriously thought of leaving, but I love this country and this shirt too much. I’m grateful to all the people who wanted me to continue playing with Argentina, hopefully we can give them something to cheer about soon.”

Since then, Argentina has won the 2021 and 2024 Copa America tournaments and broke through at last to win Messi's first World Cup at Qatar 2022. He scored twice in the final against France, then converted the first penalty attempt in a 4-2 shootout victory. Argentina needs two more wins in this tournament to join Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) as the only men’s national teams to win a second consecutive trophy.

Messi has scored 70 international goals since his “retirement”. If we only counted those, he would rank No. 24 on the men’s career scoring list. He rung up more in that period than Gerd Muller of Germany, Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast, Brazil’s Ronaldo and Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic struck in their entire careers.

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The magic of Messi was obvious from the first time he was on the ball Saturday evening. He created legitimate chances with each of his first two touches, and when one of them resulted in a corner kick for Argentina, he lined up and curled one directly toward Mac Allister at the near post, and the ball was so perfectly placed a guy who is just 5-9 was able to bounce between 6-0 Djibril Sow and 6-2 Breel Embolo and head it into the net.

Messi has won the Ballon d’Or three more times, and it seems logical to assume the first Copa America title helped him win in 2021, and the World Cup triumph in December 2022 was most of the reason he won in 2023.

Without Messi, Argentina still would have young talents such as Lautaro Martinez, Julian Alvarez and Mac Allister, but would they have won all these titles without him? Would the great Angel Di Maria have hung on long enough at last to raise the World Cup trophy in 2022, or would he have followed Messi to international retirement not long after?

We never had much time to ponder all this, because Messi’s absence never actually became a thing. Consider all the wondrous accomplishments he’s produced wearing that classic No. 10 jersey in the decade since: his hat trick against Ecuador in World Cup qualifying to assure entry to Russia 2018; scoring or assisting on nine of Argentina’s 12 goals in the 2021 Copa America victory and winning the Golden Ball at the 2022 World Cup among them.

There still may be more in the next week.

Maybe he’ll even get the chance Sunday to announce his international retirement in the same venue, this time for good, this time at the right time and maybe with his hands on another major trophy.