If Messi had equal amount of criticism and mockery from fans like Ronaldo then he would probably retired from football all together .. Very weak move from supposedly the greatest player of all time

bbc reports Messi is retiring

3 finals lost in 3 straight years can kill a man. He is going through a lot of pain at the moment and probably did not think twice before saying this. I think and hope he will come back.

he is joking probably.

Ronaldo 1 final euro 2004 , semi final WC 2006 then constant failures of Portugal until these days .. Michael Ballack , Arjen Robben , Roberto Baggio , Zico , Johan Cruyf , Van Basten , Eusebeo and many more .. Maybe they are not greatest players of all time but they certainly never quit trying ..

I can feel for him, he was setting every action, created so many chances, definitely MOTM without any doubt and yet he didn't win. The frustration after 3 straight lost finals must be really high.
All the people who say Messi got a teammates who carry him in Argentina, they should re-watch this match.

I totally agree with you.

Some people are getting up and trying again no matter what, because they want it as bad as they want to breathe.

On the other hand, some other people want to be served (assisted) by others.

The latters are not the greats.

Seeing as you aren't from Argentina you wouldn't understand. Ronaldo was never criticized by his on country the way argentina criticized messi. People in this country are so pathetic that everything he did was wrong. By the way Messi lost 4 finals with argentina.

Messi isn't alone on this, Mascherano has also retired and it looks like Aguero will follow.

There is a reason Ronaldo gets more criticism than Messi, and this is because he can sometimes be a egotistical arrogant scum, by critisicing other teams or people in the way they play or what they do. i have got nothing against Ronaldo, but you need to realise that there is a reson for the critsism he gets. look at how he respected Iceland, he treated them like dirt. he criticised there style of play, and how they celebrated after the match.
Messi respects everyone, which is why more respect him.

I'm pretty shocked by this decision. The current Ballon d'or winner, who isn't even thirty years old retires from international football. I know he lost four straight finals, but seriously? The legacy of Messi is going to take a big hit here, especially because I figured he'd have a pretty decent shot to win the World Cup in 2018, due to how stacked Argentina's team is.

@rain

Argentina media and fans are probably really cancerous, but keep in mind that there are players like Beckham that not only let down their country but were flat-out hated for years and they still came back and gave to their national teams. I don't think that's a really good excuse.

In the end, I find myself not seeing this as a retirement but instead as simple quitting. Maybe something will come to light that will change my mind about that, but for now it's all my brain can come up with.

I completely understand him, he tries hard for his nation, have everything And risk injury each game in copa America due to anti Messi tactics. good News for a Barca fan considering that the international break costed Barca CL And second Clasico.

mascherano retiring is natural tho for his age. he is getting older.
apparently aguero, di maria, biglia, lavezzi, and banega followed.

Its his decision. Im sure he has his reason for retiring and i seriously doubt its because of the loss.....HINT.....AFA

He will definitely be back. He's speaking out of frustration. He might be absent from a few games but once Argentina see how much they struggle without him he will come back. There's still time and I believe he will win one international trophy before true retirement, ugh just that word 'retirement' sounds awful when thinking of messi.

maradona was right messi is not a leader.

The emotions got to him, 4 finals and 0 wins, I can understand why he did that. But as a player of his caliber, he shouldn't. Being 29 and retiring so soon, and its not because he has been declining. He played amazing the whole tournament, but its football. Giving up is not an option, no matter what the case. Ronaldo has a tougher mentality, even though he gets 10x the criticism, he still goes on.

For the iceland comments, its true he did talk badly, but hey, they were the ones giving death threats and criticizing in the first place. Croatia, hungary, Iceland and many teams look down and criticize on Ronaldo, yet its natural. If Ronaldo talks back, its only fair, cause he didn't even start with it.

However don't you guys think its unfair for messi not winning the Golden ball. Sanchez wasn't even half as good as messi during the tournament, even vargas was better than sanchez

It is more than just losing in finals. The AFA has a lot of issues and other players followed Messi. If they can get things cleaned up, players will return.

Messi would win the golden ball if Argentina won. I guess we would have see something similar like in WC 14 when despite loosing Messi got the award for the best player.
And with Alexis winning it, I don't see anything wrong, he worked so hard whole tournament despite not scoring that often. Worked so hard whole time, despite not being fully fit.

Schweinsteiger, Lahm
lost: WC semis 2006, EC final 2008, WC semis 2010, CL final 2010, WC semis 2010, CL final 2012, EC semis 2012
won: CL 2013, WC 2014

so Messi definitely should keep going. Atleast until 2018.

Lahm is a perfect player.

Stern if the CL you mean champions league, I frankly have no idea why you include it. Club cup os way different. And sure they lost semi finals. Not the same as losing three consecutive finals. Frankly that's not a good comparison.

3 consecutive finals or 3 finals in 10 years doesn't really matter . What matters is that Messi can't inspire players around him and needs inspiration himself . He never had this kind of failures and as soon as he faced them , he is talking about quiting . That is very weak thing to do when Higuain still playing for Argentina and still has not quit to make sure he misses another great chance in the final .

That talk is closer to sore looser talk .