{"id":26400,"date":"2016-06-27T02:13:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T02:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/messi-retires-from-national-team-after-chile\/"},"modified":"2016-06-27T02:13:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T02:13:52","slug":"messi-retires-from-national-team-after-chile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/messi-retires-from-national-team-after-chile\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi retires from national team after Chile defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

{‘I’ve done all I can, it hurts not to be a champion,’ says Argentina superstar after Copa America final loss to Chile.}<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Messi and Lucas Biglia missed their shots for Argentina.<\/p>\n

It was the third consecutive defeat at a major international tournament for Messi and his teammates after losing out to<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Argentina have not won a major senior title since the 1993 Copa America. <\/p>\n

{{Chile joy}}<\/p>\n

Messi wept on the pitch of the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey as Chile’s players celebrated their second consecutive win.<\/p>\n

“There is no limit to this team,” Chile midfielder Arturo Vidal said. “We will keep going, we will keep fighting.” <\/p>\n

“Argentina have a very good, world-class team, and it is especially beautiful to beat them,” said striker Eduardo Vargas.<\/p>\n

“We are a historic group. We have proved it.”<\/p>\n

Following an ill-tempered evening that included a first-half sending-off for both teams and eight yellow cards, the game was goalless throughout normal time and 30 minutes of extra time.<\/p>\n

In the penalty shootout, Chile’s players aimed better, and goalkeeper Claudio Bravo got to lift the trophy in the presence of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. <\/p>\n

\"Messi<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{‘I’ve done all I can, it hurts not to be a champion,’ says Argentina superstar after Copa America final loss 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26400"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26400"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}