{"id":130688,"date":"2026-09-01T10:02:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/?p=130688"},"modified":"2026-09-01T10:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:02:41","slug":"argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina: Lionel Messi announces end of international career"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"dailymotion-player\"><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/x1ee8e.js\" data-video=\"k3aWkJcn3Z3StKJlyMW\"><\/script><\/div><br><br><p>\nLionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football after 207 appearances for Argentina. With 125 goals to his name, he is by far the top scorer in his national team\u2019s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football after 207 appearances for Argentina. With 125 goals to his name, he is by far the top scorer in his national team\u2019s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gam_disable_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1140],"tags":[96,5294,3739],"class_list":["post-130688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-argentina","tag-international-career","tag-lionel-messi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Argentina: Lionel Messi announces end of international career - GuardianTV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football after 207 appearances for Argentina. With 125 goals to his name, he is by far the top scorer in his national team\u2019s history.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Argentina: Lionel Messi announces end of international career - GuardianTV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football after 207 appearances for Argentina. With 125 goals to his name, he is by far the top scorer in his national team\u2019s history.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GuardianTV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-01T10:02:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/tv.guardian.ng\/2024\/07\/Messi.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"561\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"308\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abiodun Ogundairo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abiodun Ogundairo\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abiodun Ogundairo\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a7ea396ab9bae73d4845496dbad885f1\"},\"headline\":\"Argentina: Lionel Messi announces end of international career\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-01T10:02:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":46,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/gtvcdn.guardian.ng\\\/2024\\\/07\\\/Messi.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Argentina\",\"International career\",\"Lionel Messi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\\\/\",\"name\":\"Argentina: Lionel Messi announces end of international career - GuardianTV\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/argentina-lionel-messi-announces-end-of-international-career\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/gtvcdn.guardian.ng\\\/2024\\\/07\\\/Messi.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-01T10:02:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football after 207 appearances for Argentina. 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