BUENOS AIRES – They had hoped he would stay forever. When Lionel Messi announced Monday that he was retiring from the national team it unleashed a depth of grief and disbelief in Argentina rarely seen for an event everyone knew was coming.
“It hurts me so much,” said Damian Tiralongo, 47, owner of a soccer jersey store in Buenos Aires. “It’s the end of an era.”
The retirement of Messi, the soccer star who restored Argentina to global glory by leading the team to the 2022 World Cup and to the final this year, sparked not only fears of a diminished team, but heartbreak over the departure of an icon who had carried the hopes, pride and much of the identity of an entire country for two decades.
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