Well, this is one of those days in football I never wanted to witness, but sadly, it has arrived. You’re not leaving the game entirely, but stepping away from international football feels like the first step toward that day, which I can hardly bear to think about. Maybe the funniest way to honor you is to recognize what you did for millions of people: you made us willingly tune in and support Argentina, all to watch you play this little sport called football. I’m not Argentine, but somewhere along the way that stopped mattering. When you played, we all became a little bit Argentine. I’ll never forget the highs and lows I experienced following you. The 2014 World Cup final, when you were so close to conquering the sport so early on in your career. The back-to-back Copa América finals lost on penalties. But you deserved more than that. You got more than that. You finally lifted your very first international trophy in 2021. Of course I’ll always remember 2022, the greatest World Cup campaign I’ll ever witness, with the most entertaining final of all time. Then we got another Copa in 2024. You literally won every trophy that you lost, how perfect was that? After years of people saying you couldn’t do it for Argentina, you won everything there was to win. But the trophies aren’t what I’ll remember most. It’s the way you played, the way you always entertained me. The dribbles that made defenders look lost, the passes no one else could see, the free kicks that felt like penalties the moment the referee blew the whistle. You made the impossible look routine, and you did it with a quiet humility that made billions fall in love with you. This summer’s ending was bittersweet, and honestly, part of me wishes you’d won it. But you had nothing left to prove. You gave me more than I ever had the right to ask for: the story of your career. There will never be another player who can do what you did. You are football. You are eternal. Thank you for everything, Leo.