5 Reasons Lionel Messi Should Retire From Argentina After World Cup 2018
3. Too Much Pressure
No player, no matter how talented and successful, can win a World Cup all on their own. Yet every time Argentina enter a tournament, all of the hype, expectation, and pressure is placed squarely on Messi's shoulders. It's hardly surprising that the Barcelona forward already retired once from national duty, as he always seems to be unfavourably compared to Diego Maradona and any game in which Messi fails to score seems to be regarded as a failure.
He's an incredible player, and with such huge talent comes a lot of responsibility and expectation, but that pressure has really started to wear on Messi over the years. During this World Cup, he cut a frustrated figure in most matches, constantly doing all he could to help his floundering team stay afloat but struggling to forge real connections with many of his teammates.
He appeared in three major finals in a row and lost them all. This time, he and his side struggled to make it out of the group stage and lost in the first knockout round. In 2014, Messi won the World Cup Golden Ball with four goals, but this year he struggled to get his team going and scored just once. All of that pressure seems to have taken its toll.