Just as football needs heroes, the great teams of history are nourished by societies sculpted in marble. Argentina, the brand new two-time champion of America 2021-2024 and current winner of the 2022 World Cup, a sandwich of continental and world titles that only Spain had achieved between 2008 and 2012, began to say goodbye to a duo that became legends after the 1-0 against Colombia in the chaotic final in Miami: Rosario natives Lionel Messi (37 years old) and Ángel Di María (36), partners who built the most triumphant Albiceleste of all time, will no longer play together.
While Messi, despite finishing the Copa América injured and on the bench, will continue to play for Argentina in the resumption of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in September against Chile, Di María confirmed once again that he had reached the end of his career with the national team: “I dreamed that I was retiring in this way,” he said.
In his last statement in the Argentine shirt on the field, Fideo dedicated the title to the injured Leo: “Finally today we were able to give him some joy.” At the time of the award ceremony, the number 10 called his old lieutenant —and also another chieftain, the defender Nicolás Otamendi, 36 years old—, so that together they could lift the last Cup together. The poster will soon be hanging on the walls of the rooms of thousands of children who grew up with Messi and Di María as their footballing fathers from Club Atlético Selección Argentina.
Born in the same hospital in Rosario 235 days apart, but one from Newell’s and the other from Rosario Central, the partnership had its first taste of success with the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a tournament reserved for under-23s: Messi’s assist for Di María’s goal in the final against Nigeria would only be the prelude to the boiling chemistry. Since their first match together for the senior national team, in September 2008, 16 years ago, the partnership between Messi and Di María has totalled 114 matches together for Argentina, a figure that is more associated with teammates at clubs than at national teams (with Luis Suárez at Barcelona, the Argentine and the Uruguayan combined for 258).
The positive balance was overwhelming: the Albiceleste won 74 of those matches, drew 27 and lost only 13. However, the real good ones took too long to come, almost cruelly. The collection of initial frustrations, which included three consecutive lost finals between the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2015 Copa América in Chile and the 2016 Copa USA, was followed by redemption when revenge no longer seemed possible: together they accumulated four titles between the 2021 and 2024 continental cups in Brazil, the 2022 Finalísima – the clash between the CONMEBOL champions against the UEFA champions – and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The most emblematic photo between the two remained from their consecration in Doha, when Di María, smiling, explained to Messi that the Cup he had in his hands was apocryphal. Both, one in each area of the Lusail Stadium, had lifted a trophy, but only Fideo’s was original.
Even if football is incomparable in time, the Messi-Di María duo will go down in the book of great partnerships like, among many others, Alfredo Di Stéfano-Ferenc Puskas, Garrincha-Vavá, Pelé-Coutinho, Johan Cruyff-Johan Neeskens, Diego Maradona-Claudio Caniggia and, in the 21st century, Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta and, in women’s tournaments, Alexia Putellas-Aitana Bonmatí.
At the Argentine training camp in Miami, there were attempts to get Di María to reconsider his resignation. His teammates and coaching staff even asked him to symbolically play the first 11 minutes, the number on his shirt, in the match against Chile in Buenos Aires in September, for the seventh round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers that the Albiceleste is also leading: it would be a way of receiving the support of the Argentine public. However, Fideo closed all possibilities and already considers himself an ex-footballer of the national team.
Messi, on the other hand, will stay for a while longer. His last carrot is the 2026 World Cup, which he would arrive at 39 years of age and in which he would become the only player with six World Cups. He already has the record for games played in that tournament: 26. However, the number 10 made it clear more than once that he will make the decision at the right time. Those close to him say that, although he wants to play in the World Cup, he will not do so if he is not fit. Pressure will also knock on the door: FIFA and the United States need him. Messi is more important than almost all the national teams combined.
The Copa America in the United States left an ambiguous impression: always magical and once again a champion, biology and his 37 years began to dictate his course. He was injured for the first time a few minutes into the Argentina-Chile game on the second date – a contracture in the adductor muscle of his right leg – and, although he completed the 90 minutes, he was far from his ideal form. He remained on the bench for the following match, against Peru, and played very little in the dramatic quarterfinals, against Ecuador, when he even missed his shot in the penalty shootout.
After scoring his only goal in the competition, in the semi-finals against Canada – a deflection off a shot by Enzo Fernández – in the final against Colombia he injured his right ankle when he stepped on the turf in Miami and had to ask to be substituted 20 minutes into the second half: he burst into tears on the bench, inconsolable. The question will always remain whether, in addition to his age and a season in the MLS, a league without high-level competition demands, the poor condition of the Copa América playing fields also influenced his injuries, as happened to many other players from different national teams.
Although it may be an uncomfortable truth, Argentina gained speed and danger with the introduction of Nicolás González in place of the number 10 and began to reverse a process that had favoured Colombia until then. It is still a positive fact for the world champion: this time Messi was not dependent. According to Opta data, the number 10 shot once at the Colombian goal in the final. In the record of the entire tournament, the number 10 shot 13 times in five games, although only six of those shots were on target. Di María, who finished the tournament without a goal, shot 6 times, 4 of them on target. Between them, there were also 26 connections, 17 passes from Di María to Messi and 9 from Messi to Di María, the last chemical reactions of two eternal partners.
Argentina and Messi, insatiable, will go for more. Di María will already watch them from the retirement of heroes.
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