The last word on soccer legend Lionel Messi

• By JP Spinetto / Bloomberg Opinion

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Ten years ago, Lionel Messi was defeated, dejected and absolutely heartbroken.

“I did everything I could, and it didn’t work out for me,” the great man told reporters as he announced his retirement from Argentina’s national team after losing a fourth tournament final.

What came after is history: Messi would reverse that hot-headed decision two months later and lead Argentina through its most glorious period. He won a World Cup in 2022 and reached another final this year, being the tournament’s best player at 39, an age when most of his colleagues are growing their bellies as TV commentators.

When Messi walked out onto a soccer pitch with Argentina for the final time on Tuesday, wearing a sky blue-and-white striped jersey specially designed for the occasion, it was a night of emotion and remembrance.

For me, it means saying goodbye to my superhero, the guy who for the past two decades has given me hope that all my soccer dreams could become reality. The memories are endless: from walking out of Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana in tears after watching him lose the 2014 World Cup final, a game Argentina deserved to win, to marveling at his leadership as he carried an exhausted team through Miami’s extreme heat to beat Cabo Verde in July. Not to mention his glories in Qatar and that England match.

I could bore you with crazy stats and achievements that prove his uniqueness. In my eyes, he is not only the best soccer player in history, but also the greatest athlete ever. I know that is controversial, but the defining fact is this: Messi has dominated his field — the world’s most popular sport, remember — pretty much since his meteoric emergence in late 2004.

Back then, former US president George W. Bush was struggling to contain the debacle in Iraq, Facebook was an incipient idea confined to Harvard and Venezuelans still believed in Hugo Chavez. That is how much the world has changed in 22 years, and yet we still have Lionel Messi doing unbelievable stuff on a soccer pitch, like that insane free-kick goal he scored for Inter Miami a few days ago. Neither Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Muhammad Ali, Michael Phelps nor Usain Bolt, the other all-time greats, could claim that. Sorry if you disagree.

And yet, for all his magic on the field, it is his perseverance, passion and down-to-earth personality that strikes me the most. At a time when global stars have armies of advisers choreographing each of their moves, this guy seems simply motivated by kicking a ball and scoring more goals than the rival, soccer at its most essential form. He seems happier attending a fourth-division match in his hometown than enjoying the spotlight of big galas in Europe.

Messi was already Messi in 2016, when he made that imprudent retirement announcement. Having just turned 29, an age when players are starting to run out of options, he could have chosen the quiet life, enjoying his family instead of spending most summers training with the national team after a long club season. He nevertheless went back to business and endured new defeats for another five years before he could finally say he had won something with Argentina. That is an example of determination, mental strength and loyalty for his colors worth admiring.

That is why for Argentines, who did not always share my idyllic view of the Rosario-born star, Messi is now something akin to Churchill: The captain who, after so many years of economic decay and frustrations, gives the country an aura of invincibility, as if reviving past glories, even if we all know it is ephemeral.

Such defining influence is even more remarkable considering the disastrous management of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) off the pitch. Case in point: Argentina’s match on Tuesday, Messi’s historic farewell, was against 93rd-ranked Benin. His retirement, now for real even if I think he is rushing it again, would expose the institutional shortcomings of the AFA, as the national association is known. It would also force a long and painful restructuring of the national team, knowing he would not be around anymore to rub the lamp and pull us out of trouble when things go south.

Leo Messi is, above all, an anomaly: An alien who came to Earth to remind us that everything is truly possible, that you can always turn things around. While he still has a few battles to play with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, it is clear his future is increasingly linked to business and entrepreneurship rather than astounding us on a pitch. I will miss watching him, expecting the unexpected and yet nonetheless being stunned into asking, when the magic happens, “just how did he do that.”

JP Spinetto is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin American business, economic affairs and politics. He was previously Bloomberg News’ managing editor for economics and government in the region. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.