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"I'm really not sure if I'll carry on doing it for much longer."

Those words earlier this month from Lionel Messi, a man who famously says very little, sparked a global conversation about whether his storied career was about to end.

The Argentinian posted a tribute to his father, who recently died, on Instagram. "You were by my side from the beginning; there was so little left until the end. Why couldn't you hold on just a little longer so we could finish it together?" he wrote.

Messi turned 39 during a World Cup in which he belied his advanced years to drag Argentina to the final despite rarely breaking into a sprint. During the 2026 tournament, Messi scored eight goals in eight games to further cement his reputation as the best footballer of all time.

"He is the greatest footballer I've ever witnessed. You can still see that even though he's 39 years old," wrote Philipp Lahm, the former Germany captain, in a column for Kicker, a German football magazine.

Lahm, who faced Messi several times, including Germany's triumph over Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final, said the forward was"the best player I've ever played against by far."

Argentina is Messi's home, but Spain is where he found football fame

While Messi grew up in Argentina, he came of age in Spain with Barcelona, who he joined at the age of 13. In 17 seasons, Messi won 10 La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues with Barca. He has added further silverware with Paris Saint-Germain and then Inter Miami, where he has a contract until December 2028. He has won the Ballon d'Or, the award for the world's best footballer, a record eight times.

His impact on European football is hard to underestimate. While Barcelona had enjoyed periods of success before, the time Messi was there was an era without compare. The club, which produced other star graduates from its La Masia academy such as Xavi and Andres Iniesta, bestrode the continent. Even his rivals could do little but admire.

"I've never seen a footballer play as consistently as Messi. You have to bear in mind that he's never played for clubs that I like, which proves that I'm serious, the best I've ever seen," said then-Germany and Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos after Messi lifted the 2022 World Cup with Argentina and ensured he'd won basically everything worth winning.

Late-stage Messi remains a threat

As he has edged beyond the age when most players retire, Messi has adjusted, with his energy-saving approach to the 2026 World Cup the zenith of that. His move to Inter Miami in 2023, when he was in his mid-30s, was the precursor to that change.

"I've changed my style of play because of the moment, the situation and my age," he told the 433 app in 2024.

"I am adapting a little bit to everything. I started reinventing myself and adapting to the league, which for me was new."

His off-pitch impact in the US has also been significant and somehow stretched his fame, profile and marketability still further.

"A lot of people are walking around cities and towns in the UK and Europe wearing that flamingo pink of Inter Miami with zero affiliation to Miami, having never been there," sports brand strategist James Kirkham told the BBC.

A promotional tour of India in 2025 was supposed to do the same there, but his non-appearance at a match caused fans to invade a pitch during an event. In the long-term, though, that did little to dent his appeal across the globe. : 

Messi and Ronaldo the last big hitters of their age?

It is all proof of a shift in football fan culture that has progressed rapidly since Messi started his career more than 20 years ago. Increasingly now, fans follow players rather than teams, with Messi and the challenger to his crown, Cristiano Ronaldo, at the forefront.

"The athlete is more than just a competitor or the labor on the field, but I feel like it wasn't until really the emergence of social media and technologies that the boundaries of what the athlete is really transcended," Nataliya Bredikhina, a sports branding expert from the University of Delaware in the US, told DW with regard to Messi's place in this growing phenomenon.

Many observers had expected the baton of that global fan attention to have been passed on by now. But despite the emergence of younger superstars such as Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, Messi and Ronaldo still stand supreme off the pitch.

On it, the pair both still deliver, though the physical decline is clearer by the week. While Messi is in the MLS in the US, Ronaldo is chasing his own 1,000-goal milestone in Saudi Arabia. Messi could potentially reach such heights too. And with his style adapted to disguise his fading fitness, a career that stretches into the 40s, as Ronaldo's has, seems possible. But the man himself says he will know when the time is right.

"I know that the moment I feel that I am no longer able to perform, that I no longer enjoy or help my team-mates, I will quit," he said in a 2024 interview on the Big Time podcast.

Despite the loss of his father, and the difficulties in envisaging a future without him, that moment still seems a way off. When it comes, it will, like his talent and legacy, be seismic.: