Here is the full list of trophies, individual awards and records he set along the way.
Trophies
Messi won six major trophies across his Argentina career. The 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup, the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal, the 2021 Copa América, the 2022 Finalissima, the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2024 Copa América.
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Individual awards and records
At the 2005 U-20 World Cup, an 18-year-old Messi won both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot after scoring six goals, including both in the final win over Nigeria.
He was named Copa América’s Best Player in 2015 and again in 2021. At senior World Cup level, he won the Golden Ball in 2014 and 2022, the only player in history to win it twice.
His hat-trick against Algeria in 2026, at 38 years and 357 days old, earned him a Guinness World Record as the oldest player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup.
Argentina national team records
Messi retires as Argentina’s all-time most-capped player and all-time leading goalscorer, finishing with 125 goals in 207 appearances.
He is also the country’s all-time top provider, with 65 assists. He broke Javier Mascherano’s Argentina appearance record back in 2021.
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FIFA World Cup records
Across six tournaments between 2006 and 2026, Messi made 34 World Cup appearances, more than any player in history, and captained the side in a record 26 of them.
He also holds the record for most minutes played at a World Cup, having broken Paolo Maldini’s long-standing mark during the 2022 final, and he was the first player to appear at six separate World Cups, a milestone Cristiano Ronaldo matched days later.
He is the only player to register an assist in six different World Cups, and holds the record for most assists in World Cup knockout-stage history with 10, surpassing Pelé’s previous mark of six.
His overall World Cup assist tally of 12 is the most of any player, ahead of Diego Maradona’s eight.
At Qatar 2022 he became the only man to score in every round of a single World Cup, from the group stage through to the final, and across his career he is the only player to have scored at a World Cup in his teens, twenties and thirties.
He has scored four or more goals in three separate tournaments (2014, 2022 and 2026), a feat matched only by Miroslav Klose (2002, 2006 and 2010).
He also holds the record for scoring in the most consecutive World Cup matches, netting in nine straight games stretching from the 2022 final back through to Egypt in the 2026 round of 16 – surpassing the previous record of six, jointly held by France’s Just Fontaine (1958) and Brazil’s Jairzinho (1970).
Combining goals and assists, Messi’s Algeria hat-trick took his career World Cup goal contributions to 24, moving him clear of the record he had shared with Pelé at 21.
His hat-trick against Algeria in 2026 also took him level with Miroslav Klose’s long-standing record of 16 World Cup goals, and made him one of only two players – alongside Cameroon’s Roger Milla at Italia 90 – to score four or more goals in a single World Cup at 38 or older.
Kylian Mbappé went on to finish that tournament ahead of him, ending on a record 22 goals to Messi’s final tally of 21.
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Copa América records
Messi finishes as Copa América’s all-time most-capped player, with 39 appearances across seven editions. He is not, however, the tournament’s outright top scorer, his 14 Copa América goals sit behind the joint record of 17 shared by Argentina’s Norberto Méndez and Brazil’s Zizinho.
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Beijing 2008 and youth football
Messi was part of the Argentina squad that won gold at the 2008 Olympics, beating Nigeria 1-0 in the final. Three years earlier, he had inspired Argentina to the 2005 U-20 World Cup as an 18-year-old, scoring in every knockout round of the tournament.
Photo: REUTERS/Carl Recine
