Ten years after Lionel Messi walked away from Argentina following a Copa America final defeat at MetLife Stadium, the same ground may have staged his final international act. This time, however, he leaves behind a champion team facing the hardest transition of all.
The first time MetLife Stadium appeared to close the door on Messi, his penalty climbed over Claudio Bravo’s crossbar. Ten years later, in the same vast bowl in East Rutherford, the door may have closed again. In a sapping FIFA World Cup 2026 final, Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute as Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time, and Messi walked beneath someone else’s confetti.
If this was his last match for Argentina, the symmetry is almost too neat. But the “MetLife curse” is less a superstition than a cruel framing device: two defeats at one ground, separated by one of international football’s great resurrections.
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In 2016, Argentina and Chile drew 0-0 before Chile won the shoot-out 4-2. Messi missed, Argentina suffered a third successive major-final defeat, and its captain announced his international retirement. Coach Gerardo Martino resigned soon afterwards amid chaos within the Argentine Football Association.
Messi returned roughly seven weeks later after speaking with the new coach, Edgardo Bauza, but salvation wasn’t immediate. Bauza gave way to Jorge Sampaoli, and the 2018 World Cup ended in a disoriented last-16 defeat by France.
The decisive change came only when Lionel Scaloni, initially a caretaker with little senior managerial experience, began rebuilding with Pablo Aimar and Walter Samuel in 2018. Their most important idea wasn’t to construct another system that simply waited for Messi. It was to create a team strong enough to carry the parts of the game he no longer could, while preserving the freedom that made him unique.
Rodrigo De Paul supplied the running and aggression, often protecting Messi’s side. Leandro Paredes offered rhythm and edge. Emiliano Martínez brought personality in goal; Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez defended on the front foot. Lautaro Martínez and Julian Alvarez gave Argentina two different kinds of centre-forward, while Gonzalo Montiel became part of history with the penalty that settled the 2022 World Cup final.
This was the generation that changed the meaning of Messi’s Argentina career. The 2021 Copa America, won against Brazil at the Maracana, was the country’s first senior title in 28 years and Messi’s first with the senior national side. The Finalissima followed in 2022, then the World Cup in Qatar and another Copa America in 2024. The serial-loser narrative didn’t merely disappear; it became absurd.
Even at 39, Messi wasn’t carried through this World Cup. He scored eight goals, made four more and won the Silver Ball. His hat-trick against Algeria made him the oldest player to score three in a World Cup match. He then helped rescue Argentina against Egypt and created both goals in the semifinal comeback against England. He was directly involved in 12 of Argentina’s 19 goals and played every minute of the knockout rounds.
Argentina’s future mustn’t become a search for “the next Messi”. There isn’t one. The answer has to be the redistribution of his work. | Photo Credit: AP
Those numbers describe his greatness, but they also reveal Argentina’s problem. In the final, Scaloni again used a narrow midfield designed to surround his captain. De Paul covered ground to the right, Enzo Fernandez and Alexis Mac Allister tried to advance the ball, Nicolas Gonzalez angled in from the left, and Alvarez ran beyond Messi. Spain compressed the centre, with Rodri screening the defence, and denied Messi the pockets from which he could turn.
Argentina had no attempt at goal in the regulation 90 minutes, the first time that had happened to a team in a World Cup final. Fernandez’s second yellow card in the 93rd minute made the task still harder. Messi finally produced Argentina’s first attempt in the 117th, but there was no last escape. Spain had removed the supply before confronting the sorcerer.
That tactical dependence explains why Argentina’s future mustn’t become a search for “the next Messi”. There isn’t one. The answer has to be the redistribution of his work.
Alvarez and Lautaro can lead a more continuous press. Enzo and Mac Allister can assume greater responsibility for progression, while Nico Paz offers promise between the lines and Valentin Barco can add width and invention. Romero and Lisandro are young enough to anchor another cycle. De Paul, Paredes, Martinez and Montiel can provide a bridge, although several pillars of the champion side are now approaching or beyond their early thirties.
Without Messi, Argentina could become more symmetrical: maybe a conventional 4-3-3 with three forwards defending together and a midfield no longer compensating for one player’s free role. It may gain collective pressure and positional balance. What it will lose is much harder to coach: the pass nobody else sees, the pause that moves a defence, and the shared belief that one touch can reverse a night heading towards defeat.
At the time of writing, Messi hasn’t announced his international retirement. Before the final, he said he intended to continue for as long as he could contribute physically. Scaloni hasn’t resigned either; after the defeat, he said he needed time to consider his future and speak with the federation.
The uncertainty matters. Argentina may be preparing for a transition in captain, coach and style at once, rather than merely changing the name on the No. 10 shirt.
Argentina lost 4-2 on penalties to Chile after the 2016 Copa America Centenario final at MetLife Stadium ended 0-0 following extra time, with Lionel Messi missing in the shoot-out. | Photo Credit: AFP
Yet MetLife can’t undo what came between its two painful nights. In a 2023 interview, Messi imagined speaking to his younger self after all the setbacks. He would tell him not to give up, because the journey would finish like “a movie with a happy ending”.
For those now in their late twenties, it really has felt like a film watched across their own coming of age: the prodigy in 2006, the broken figure of 2016, the captain lifting the Copa America, and finally the World Cup victory at Lusail. A happy ending doesn’t become unhappy because the credits run one scene later.
If MetLife was Messi’s final frame, he leaves not with another trophy but with something that once seemed less attainable: an Argentina no longer crushed by his shadow. The next generation’s task isn’t to reproduce his genius. It is to prove that the culture built around him can survive without him, and that the players who helped complete his beautiful movie are ready to write Argentina’s next one.
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Published on Jul 20, 2026