Thank you, Messi!

The announcement surprised more than a few, but it wasn't exactly a huge shock. However, for the romantic fans of the Argentine national team, it's a hard blow; it was when Diego Armando Maradona stopped wearing that jersey, and it will be now that Lionel Messi has decided to stop wearing it.

That day seemed still suspended in that secret realm where dreams live, but in the end, it arrived, as is the way of life.

The boy who crossed the ocean with a dream both small and huge, in a heart that seemed to stand in his way, and later the man who made football a form of poetry, will be there, before thousands of people unable to hold back his tears, and fans and detractors alike will understand that we are not just saying goodbye to a footballer, but to a way of believing.

Dark times may come for the South American team, but no one can reproach the genius from Rosario who gave everything and more. The day they pay him tribute, because he will surely have more than one, he will walk onto the field with the calm of someone who has traveled every road.

When the ball reached his domain, everything was possible; his feet could transform a pitch into a garden, a match into a story, a defeat into the promise of a new dawn, and only the chosen ones can do that.

He was expected to do what perhaps no one should ever have to bear: the obligation to save us from our own disappointments. But accepting the label of Messiah, he returned time and again, coming back after defeats, after criticism, after those nights when glory always seemed just beyond reach.

He returned because the national team wasn't just a jersey; it was his childhood, his roots, his grandmother's voice, the streets of Rosario, the shared mate drink, the emotion of a country that learned to call him by his name with tenderness and, at times, with fury, at least until 2022.

The Copa América, the Finalissima, the World Cup—each trophy arrived like a long-awaited letter, the reward for years of resistance, pent-up tears, postponed embraces, and an entire country reconciling with its own idol.

We watched him grow under a gaze that was never entirely fair, because we demanded he be a hero before allowing him to be human, and we demanded goals, titles, feats, and miracles.

Time goes on, and his legs grow heavy, recoveries take longer, the nights grow longer, and the player who seemed eternal begins to glance at the clock, not because he has stopped loving football, but because he loves it too much to ignore its nature: every match has a final minute; every song, a final note.

In his case, it became even sadder with the loss of his father, and although he still has something more to give us, it won't go beyond Inter Miami and the tributes that will follow.

It's not a time to say goodbye, but to say thank you, because some stories don't end: they simply learn to live on in our memories. Messi will leave the national team, but he will never leave us.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff