Argentina’s Messi: a legacy and the effect of his absences
Leo traveled with the squad to Bolivia, yet he was not placed on the bench and he did not participate in the second qualifier date. The impact of his absence was felt in the performance arc of the team and in the momentum of the campaign through the years.
Lionel Messi is as inseparable from Argentina as the country is from a world stage moment whenever the name Rosario is spoken. Since making his debut for the light blue and white on August 17, 2005 in a friendly against Hungary, he has been a constant presence until the September 12, 2023 match against Bolivia, a game he missed despite traveling to La Paz. Across 222 official appearances for the Albiceleste, he sat out 46 contests. He has been a defining figure on nearly every expedition by the national team.
During his first decade with the national squad, Messi was nearly flawless, missing only 15 games from 2005 to 2014. In 2013, a string of injuries caused him to miss four matches, the highest single-year absence in that stretch. He played every game in 2012 and missed just one in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014. In 2006 he sat out twice still within the World Cup schedule, and in 2008 he missed three times.
Over time, absences grew more frequent, often due to injuries and later because of mental fatigue. In 2015 Messi sat out seven Albiceleste games, almost half of all prior missed games in the previous decade. Between 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, another eight matches slipped away. A period of burnout followed the Russia exit, with nine months without donning the light blue and white shirt and six friendlies missed in that span.
The captain returned in March 2019 to lead a new cycle under coach Lionel Scaloni. His dedication was total: after a defeat to Venezuela that marked his comeback, Messi then missed seven more matches that year, including five friendlies and two qualifying fixtures in 2022.
After taking part in all of Argentina’s matches in 2020 and 2021, Messi ran a streak of 22 consecutive appearances as the team won the Copa América and secured a Qatar World Cup berth well ahead of schedule. The run ended with the first 2022 FIFA date, after a month off and a longer-than-expected recovery from illness, when Scaloni chose not to call him for the Chile and Colombia fixtures.
He returned to feature in the remaining 14 matches of 2022 for the Albiceleste: the final two qualifiers, the Finalissima against Italy, four friendlies, and seven matches en route to the World Cup in Qatar. In early 2023, the captain joined world title celebrations against Panama and Curaçao and started the Asian tour with a friendly win over Australia in June. A loss to Indonesia marked the end of a streak—seventeen consecutive appearances without interruption for the Rosario native.
HOW ARGENTINA FARED WITHOUT MESSI IN POINT MATCHES
La Pulga has missed 16 qualifying or other point-driven games since debuting with the national team. Thirteen of those were in World Cup qualifiers, one in the Copa América, and the remaining two occurred in 2006 during the World Cup in Germany, when Argentina did not participate in those particular matches. (Goal) This context helps explain shifts in results when the captain was unavailable.
Messi’s first absence in the qualifiers occurred in 2013, after the final three matches of Argentina’s route to Germany. The Ten had completed the South Africa 2010 run and then missed the last two dates on the road to Brazil 2014. The path to Russia 2018 proved bumpy, with injuries and a suspension keeping him out of eight of the eighteen games. For Qatar 2022, he played 15 of 17 matches, excluding a canceled fixture against Brazil in September 2021. At the outset of the 2026 South American qualifiers, he played a key role against Ecuador on his debut but was not present for the La Paz clash with Bolivia.
In the Copa América, Messi has missed only one match across the six editions played to date. He was absent for the Group stage win against Chile in the United States in 2016. Until then, he had participated in the sixteen matches spanning the 2007, 2011 and 2015 editions, and then played in the next five matches on North American soil, appearing in all six matches at Brazil 2019, except for his early exit in the third-place game against Chile. He did not miss a minute in the 2021 edition. In total, his assist rate in point games has remained remarkably high across 136 matches that include World Cup qualifiers, World Cup finals, Copa América and the Finalissima.
Team performance clearly shifts when the captain is not on the field. Without Messi, Argentina collected 26 points from 48 in official matches, with seven wins, five draws, and four losses. With him, the balance in World Cups, Copa América, qualifiers and the Finalissima rises to 71 wins, 33 draws, and 18 losses, equating to 246 points from 366 possible. This underscores his influence on collective results.
ARGENTINA WITHOUT MESSI IN FRIENDLY MATCHES
On the friendly front, Messi sat out 30 of 84 matches. Note that two fixtures against Catalonia in 2008 and 2009 are not FIFA-recognized, and some traditional derbies or local preparation games are not counted in the tally. In preparatory games, the team’s performance was less impacted by the captain’s absence, posting 20 wins, six draws, and four losses, yielding an effectiveness around 73 percent. The overall takeaway is clear: Argentina plays with an edge when La Pulga is on the field, while the team can still shine in his absence in certain contexts.
Below are the details of the matches Messi missed with the national team. These data points reflect the trajectory up to December 9, 2023, and illustrate how the squad adapted across competitions and eras.
Will Messi, playing in the MLS, surpass Cristiano Ronaldo in goals? The discussion invites fans to reflect on the evolving nature of legacies across generations, roles, and leagues. The ongoing narrative remains open to interpretation as new chapters unfold.
Source: Goal