Jose Mourinho, the manager of Real Madrid, publicly congratulated Lionel Messi following the latter’s retirement from international football. During Mourinho’s tenure at Real Madrid, he developed strategies specifically aimed at countering Messi, who became Barcelona’s all-time leading goalscorer and is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players in history.
Messi made 207 appearances for Argentina and retired as the country’s all-time leading scorer with 125 goals, including 21 at the World Cup. Winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup and multiple Copa America titles eventually gave Messi the international success he had been chasing for years and, in many ways, completed his football story. 10 has said goodbye, but your story will never end
The next Copa America and the next World Cup won’t be the same. The Portuguese manager revealed that stopping the Argentine became one of his biggest challenges, forcing him to come up with a different approach instead of trying to beat Barcelona at their own game. His international journey was a roller-coaster ride, filled with heartbreaks and setbacks before he finally got his hands on the biggest prizes. Mourinho, who spent years on the opposite side of the El Clasico rivalry, acknowledged the lasting impact Messi had on international football. Commenting on Messi’s retirement post, he wrote: “Congratulations on a brilliant and unforgettable international career. Mourinho himself admitted in his documentary just how difficult it was to prepare for Messi during his Real Madrid days. Mourinho added: “I was having a nightmare. ‘What can we do to stop him? From the first [El Clasico] game, I knew that we couldn’t be better than them doing the same as they do. To beat them, we had to be different both on and off the pitch. We were football enemies in the sense we fought for the same cup, the same league, the same Champions League. I think it was a good thing. Also Read – Open letter to Lionel Messi: The no.
Because his father was facing health issues that eventually claimed his life, meanwhile, Messi used his retirement note to address the doubts surrounding his commitment to Argentina, making it clear that regardless of the results or the criticism he faced, he had always given everything for the national team and wanted to make his country proud In a long social-media post, Messi explained he wrote his retirement letter on July 21 – two days after the World Cup final in which he struggled to make an impact – but waited to publish it.
