Lionel Messi says he's retiring from playing for Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Lionel Messi announced his retirement from international soccer on Monday after two decades representing Argentina.

“It was a decision that hurt — and still hurts deeply — but I understand that the time has come,” the 39-year-old Messi said on his Instagram account.

“I swear to you that I always gave it my all — not just in these last few years when we won everything, but before that too; I always fought and left everything on the field for this jersey, to bring you joy and make you feel proud to be Argentine through football.”

Messi played in a record-tying six World Cups, won it in 2022 in Qatar and led Argentina to this year's final, losing to Spain in extra time in New Jersey.

In the World Cup hosted in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, Messi played all eight matches and scored eight goals. He finished just one goal behind France’s Kylian Mbappé, the tournament’s top scorer. He concluded his international career as Argentina's all-time leading scorer with 125 goals, 21 of which were scored in World Cups.

He explained he wrote his retirement letter on July 21 — two days after the World Cup final — but waited to publish it because his father was facing health issues that eventually claimed his life.

Jorge Messi died on Aug. 8 in his native Rosario.

Messi will continue to play for Inter Miami. Over the weekend he scored four times in a 7-1 win over CF ​Montreal.

He made his Argentina debut in 2006 but his journey was fraught with frustration until he finally lifted the World Cup in 2022.

“Thank you for all the love these past 20 years," he said. "I’m going to miss hearing you all from the inside so much. Now I’m going to be one of you, cheering and supporting you from the outside (through thick and thin, even more so).”

In the letter, the Inter Miami captain did not say how long he intends to continue playing.

“I leave with the peace of mind and pride of having given you — along with my teammates — moments we once only dreamed of. Experiencing this with you was incredible. I love you all,” he added.

Messi's stellar recent success with Argentina nearly didn’t happen.

A decade ago, before the World Cup triumph and Copa América titles in 2021 and 2024, he retired from the national team. The decision followed Argentina's defeat in the 2016 Copa América final to Chile on penalty kicks, one of which he missed.

But Messi shook off the notion of not being able to win the big match. He continued starring for Barcelona, then Paris Saint-Germain, then Inter Miami.

He’s the two-time defending Most Valuable Player in Major League Soccer, the star of the league reigning champion, someone who still creates goals in the biggest moments.

“He is pure history,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said during the recent World Cup. “History. A legend.”

AP Sports writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

FILE - Argentina's Angel Di Maria, top, celebrates with Argentina's Lionel Messi after scoring against Ecuador during a World Cup 2014 qualifying soccer game in Buenos Aires, June 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Ivan Fernandez, File)

FILE - People sing happy birthday to Lionel Messi at a street mural of him in Buenos Aires, Argentina, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

FILE - Argentina's Lionel Messi, left, competes for the ball with Nigeria's Danny Shittu, right, and Nigeria's Dickson Etuhu, center, during the World Cup group B soccer match in Johannesburg, South Africa, June 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

FILE - Argentina's Lionel Messi (10) dribbles between England's Anthony Gordon (18) and Harry Kane (9) during the World Cup semifinal soccer match in Atlanta, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FILE - Argentina's Lionel Messi scores his team's second goal during the group F World Cup soccer match against Bosnia in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi reacts following an unsuccessful scoring attempt during the first half of an MLS soccer match against CF Montreal, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

MILLINOCKET, Maine (AP) — More than 14 million older adults fall every year in the U.S., perhaps none so often as 91-year-old Dale Sanders.

By his count, Sanders fell 71 times while reclaiming his record as the oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail. Seven were what he calls hard falls, including one that led to a brief hospitalization and another just 200 yards from the finish. But none were enough to permanently divert him from the 2,193-mile (3,530-kilometer) trail that runs between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy defines a thru-hike as completing all of the trail's sections in any order within a year, allowing for pauses. Sanders started Sept. 6 in West Virginia, hopscotched around with some brief breaks and finished Monday atop Maine's highest peak.

Sanders, whose trail name is Grey Beard, first set the Appalachian Trail record in 2017 at age 82. Four years later, his 83-year-old friend M.J. Eberhart, aka Nimblewill Nomad, took the title. But within months, Sanders announced his plan for a comeback.

While Sanders’ first journey was easier than he expected, the latest was considerably harder. Despite six months of training near his home outside Memphis, Tennessee, he said he wasn’t in the best condition when he returned to the trail.

“And even today, I feel that I should probably be in better shape than I am,” he said last month. “But I just have to always go back and say, ‘But I am 91, so I'm blazing new ground hiking long distances like this.'”

There’s a huge difference between hiking the trail at 82 and 91, he said. “But it is possible, because I’m proving that.”

In June, Sanders was descending Killington Mountain in central Vermont when he fell forward in a boulder field, scraping his legs, arms and hands.

“Thank God nothing got broken, but I was banged up,” he said. “I didn’t rub the blood off, I just kept hiking.”

Weeks later, his left arm went numb and he ended up at a Maine hospital. What doctors initially feared was a stroke turned out to be a pinched nerve, but though he was soon cleared to resume hiking, he considered giving up.

He returned home in early August to be with his wife, whose mother had just died, and she convinced him to press on.

Some of Sanders’ best days were in Pennsylvania, where he enjoyed well-maintained trails and treats delivered by “trail angels."

“When people are taking care of you and bringing you caramel frappes on the trail, the rocks don’t matter,” he said.

In fact, Sanders has become something of a star among fellow hikers. Thousands more follow him on social media, which surprised Sanders and caused him to expand his mission beyond reclaiming his record.

“I wanna get it back, but right now, that’s secondary," he said. "Right now, what’s the most important thing - and it’s one of the things that surprised me – is that people are motivated and given encouragement by my efforts.”

Meredith Ewenson, who met Sanders in June while leading a hike in New Hampshire for 10 other women, said he embodied not just the idea that anything is possible, but that the journey matters most.

“Seeing it in real life is something that I'll definitely remember forever," she said.

Ewenson said her group spotted Sanders early in the morning, but it wasn’t until he blazed by them hours later that they saw the Grey Beard logo on his T-shirt and realized who he was. They caught up with him that night at an Appalachian Mountain Club hut, arriving around 4 p.m.

“I got here at noon,” he told them.

The next morning, she and others cheered as Sanders performed a “victory dance" before setting off again.

“My first thought was ‘Wow, his mobility is insane,’” Ewenson said. “His face on that body just doesn’t make any sense. My brain couldn’t compute how he was so impossibly fit for being that age.”

Sanders was born in Kentucky in 1935, two years before the Appalachian Trail was completed. Bullied as a child for his small size, he gained confidence in solo sports like acrobatics and swimming. He later served in the Navy and retired in 2002 after a long career in parks and recreation.

Sanders holds numerous other age-related records, including becoming the oldest person to paddle the entire length of the Mississippi River, an 87-day trip he started on his 87th birthday.

On his latest adventure, he tackled obstacles like downed trees or steep scrambles with vigor, though he started to get a bit wobbly toward the end of one 12-mile (19-kilometer) day. He laid down on the trail, said he needed a power nap and briefly fell asleep.

Two minutes later, he got up and kept hiking.

Dale Sanders, 91, pauses for a prayer upon completing his hike of the Appalachian Trail at the summit of Mt. Katahdin, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 in Baxter State Park in Piscataquis County, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Dale Sanders, 91, celebrates upon completing his hike of the Appalachian Trail at the summit of Mt. Katahdin, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 in Baxter State Park in Piscataquis County, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Dale Sanders, 91, climbs a section of Mt. Katahdin, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 in Baxter State Park in Piscataquis County, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Appalachian Trail hiker Dale Sanders wades across Big Wilson Stream on the 100-Mile Wilderness north of Monson, Maine, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Grey Beard is a fitting trail name for 91-year-old Appalachian Trail hiker Dale Sanders, seen enjoying a rest, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, north of Monson, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)