"For me the national team is over": Messi retires from International football after Argentina lose Copa America final to Chile

Lionel Messi, the five-time FIFA
World Player of the Year, has
announced his retirement from
international football after
Argentina lost the second Copa
America title to Chile in two years.


"For me the national team is over.
I've done all I can. It hurts not to
be a champion," the 29-year-old
Barcelona superstar told reporters
on Sunday after his fourth defeat
in a major final with Argentina.


Chile beat Argentina in the final for
the second straight year, 4-2 in the
penalty shootout following a 0-0
tie that ended an expanded 16-
nation edition in the US to mark
the championship's 100th anniversary.

Messi and Lucas Biglia missed their
shots for Argentina. It was the third consecutive defeat at a major international tournament for Messi and his teammates after losing out to Messi, winner of four Champions
League titles and eight Spanish La
Liga crowns with Barcelona, was
also a member of Argentina's Copa
America team that lost to Brazil in
2007.

Messi says he is done with playing for Argentina after losing second consecutive Copa America final to Chile.

Al Jazeera's Daniel Schweimler,
reporting from the Argentine
capital, Buenos Aires, after the
final, said that "great despondency
was descending on Argentina"
following the three consecutive final losses. "There is this great generation of players - including Messi, Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero, so many wonderful players - yet they are unable to win a major tournament. "They are reaching the finals but they just don't seem to have what it takes to be able to get their hands on those trophies. I think there's a great deal of soul-
searching, a great deal of questioning now about to take
place here in Argentina."

Argentina have not won a major
senior title since the 1993 Copa
America.

Source: Al Jazeera