{"id":29597,"date":"2026-10-06T03:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/messi.com\/?p=29597"},"modified":"2026-10-06T03:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:41:19","slug":"leo-plays-his-final-match-for-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/leo-plays-his-final-match-for-argentina\/","title":{"rendered":"LEO PLAYS HIS FINAL MATCH FOR ARGENTINA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-29597\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-29597-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-29597-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-29597-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div class=\"text-noti panel-widget-style panel-widget-style-for-29597-0-0-0\" ><div\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tclass=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n\t<div data-testid=\"chat-page\">\n<div data-testid=\"chat-page\">\n<p>Leo takes the field this Tuesday for his final appearance with the Argentina national team at the Monumental in a friendly against Benin, closing a career that began in 2005 and includes six World Cup participations. During this period he has reached 207 matches and remains the national team\u2019s all\u2011time leading scorer with 125 goals and 68 assists, while guiding Argentina to the 2022 World Cup and two Copa Am\u00e9rica titles, in 2021 and 2024. In total, he has played 34 World Cup matches and scored 21 goals, becoming the player with the most appearances in the history of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>This match marks the end of the longest cycle for any player in the history of Argentina\u2019s senior team. Leo also reached three World Cup finals: runner\u2011up in Brazil 2014, champion in Qatar 2022, and once again part of the final match of a World Cup this past summer against Spain.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the Copa Am\u00e9rica, Leo has played 39 matches across seven editions, the highest tally since the tournament\u2019s creation, and has scored 14 goals in the competition. He has appeared in five finals \u20142007, 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2024\u2014 lifting the trophy in the two most recent ones, first in Brazil 2021 and then in the United States 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Leo concludes his honours with Argentina with four senior titles: the 2021 Copa Am\u00e9rica, the 2022 Finalissima, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2024 Copa Am\u00e9rica. These are joined by two additional trophies from his early years with the national team: the 2005 U\u201120 World Cup and the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pointer-events-none absolute bottom-0 w-full\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pointer-events-none absolute bottom-0 w-full\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leo takes the field this Tuesday for his final appearance with the Argentina national team at the Monumental in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-noticias-en","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29603,"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29597\/revisions\/29603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}