Ronaldo Stays Silent on Messis Argentina Retirement, but His Old 2016 Message Resurfaces Widely Now

Cristiano Ronaldo had not issued any new public statement as of Tuesday regarding Lionel Messi’s retirement from the Argentina national team, though the Portuguese star’s decade-old response to Messi’s first, short-lived international retirement in 2016 has resurfaced widely across sports media in the days following Messi’s announcement.

Messi, 39, announced Monday that he was stepping away from Argentina’s national team after 21 years, closing out an international career that included the 2022 World Cup title and finished with 125 goals in 207 appearances, making him the country’s all-time leading scorer. The announcement came weeks after Argentina’s runner-up finish at this summer’s World Cup and shortly after the death of Messi’s father and longtime agent, Jorge Messi, on Aug. 8.

While Ronaldo has not commented directly on Messi’s latest and final retirement from Argentina duty, multiple outlets covering the story this week, including NewsX and India.com, have republished remarks Ronaldo made in 2016, when Messi first announced he was quitting international football following Argentina’s penalty-shootout loss to Chile in that year’s Copa America Centenario final. At the time, Ronaldo, then preparing to lead Portugal in the Euro 2016 semifinals, offered a sympathetic response to his longtime rival’s decision. “Messi has taken a tough decision, and people should understand,” Ronaldo told the Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo at the time, according to Sky Sports. “He is not accustomed to defeats and disappointments, not even finishing second. Missing a penalty does not make you a bad player.”

Ronaldo went further in that 2016 interview, expressing hope that Messi would eventually reconsider the decision. “It hurts to see Messi in tears and I hope he returns to his country, because he needs it,” Ronaldo said at the time. That hope proved well-founded: Messi reversed his 2016 retirement within weeks, returning to Argentina’s squad in time for World Cup qualifying matches later that year, a decision that ultimately set the stage for the international trophies, including the 2021 and 2024 Copa America titles and the 2022 World Cup, that followed over the subsequent decade.

The Messi-Ronaldo rivalry has stood as one of the defining storylines in men’s soccer for nearly two decades, with the two players trading Ballon d’Or awards and record-breaking statistics throughout their overlapping careers at Barcelona and Real Madrid, and later at Inter Miami and Al-Nassr, respectively. Despite the competitive intensity between the two, moments of mutual respect and sympathy, like Ronaldo’s 2016 comments, have periodically surfaced throughout their careers, feeding into a broader narrative among fans and commentators about the genuine regard the two rivals have held for one another off the field.

Ronaldo, 40, continues to hold the outright lead over Messi in career international goals, having scored 146 for Portugal compared with Messi’s 125 for Argentina, and he has given no public indication that he intends to follow Messi into international retirement anytime soon. Messi briefly held the record for most career World Cup goals during this summer’s tournament before finishing one goal behind France’s Kylian Mbappe in that specific tally, according to figures reported by Yardbarker.

As of this report, neither Ronaldo nor his representatives have issued a fresh statement specifically addressing Messi’s Monday retirement announcement, and outlets covering the story have relied entirely on the resurfaced 2016 remarks to frame Ronaldo’s historical perspective on his rival stepping away from international competition. Should Ronaldo choose to comment directly on Messi’s latest and, this time, seemingly final departure from the Argentina national team, any such remarks would mark the first time in nearly a decade that he has publicly addressed Messi’s relationship with international soccer.