Messi decides to call it quits

It represents the continuation of one of football’s worst hard-luck stories.

No, it isn’t Scotland sitting at home while all their neighbours do battle with Europe’s finest.

It’s another Argentinian failure in a major tournament.

A failure that takes their barren spell to 23 years.

A failure that has led to the world’s greatest player, Lionel Messi, announcing his international retirement.

A failure that means Messi will never win a trophy on the international stage. He’s only 29-years-old. Normally, quoting someone’s young age in this tone is associated with a sudden death.

But that’s almost what this equates to for the world of football.

Even the man with the midas touch couldn’t help dispose of Chile in a Copa America final decided on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes.

Oh, and Messi blazed his penalty into row Z, too.

A player who has been the king of the world at club level for a decade held the final piece to his own jigsaw on Sunday evening.

But that jigsaw once again went to pieces as his well-documented penalty woe came back to haunt him.

Seven straight international final defeats, three in as many years, proved too much for Messi as the maestro visibly broke down after the shoot-out.

It looked like it was finally going to be his year.

The path to glory had been paved thanks to the early elimination of Brazil and Uruguay.

He came off the bench to net a seven-minute hat-trick when his team were stuttering against tournament minnows Panama.

And he became Argentina’s all-time record goal scorer with a simply stunning, trademark free-kick in the semi-final against the USA.

But the stars did not align and Messi has subsequently, and sadly, called time on his international career after scoring 55 goals in 113 appearances.

His Olympic gold medal from 2008 will continue its lonely shelf life in the international section of his otherwise laden trophy room.

If Barcelona can win it, he’s won it.

But if Argentina can win it, he hasn’t. And that’s what’s proving the most difficult aspect for Messi to deal with.

He was quoted after Sunday’s final as saying:

“I’ve done all I can, it hurts not to be a champion.

“It is the thing I wanted most but I can’t get it.

“It’s very hard but the decision is taken. There will be no going back.”

Messi’s stunned team mates have said they hope their captain and talisman spoke in the heat of the moment and will reverse his decision before the qualifying games for the World Cup in 2018 begin.

I, too, hope in Russia we see Lionel Messi representing his country once again.

The decision is taken There’s no going back

Argenti-no Messi missed a penalty in the shoot-out