Messi's One Regret After Argentina Farewell: 'What an Idiot, I Wasted My Time'

Lionel Messi has won everything football can offer, but as he bowed out of international football this week, the Argentina legend admitted one lingering regret: never learning English as a boy.

The one thing trophies could not fix

Lionel Messi leaves international football with eight Ballon d'Or awards, four Champions League titles and a World Cup. His final act in an Argentina shirt – a goal and two assists in the 3-0 win over Benin at the Monumental – closed a 21-year story that ended exactly the way legends are supposed to end theirs: on the pitch, applauded by 80,000 people.

Yet for all the medals, Messi admits there is one thing that nags at him, and it has nothing to do with football. In a candid conversation on the Mexican podcast Miro de Atras, recorded earlier this year and widely recirculated this week as he concluded his Argentina career, the 39-year-old said his one real regret is that he never learned English.

"I regret many things," Messi told the podcast. "To not have learned English as a boy. I had the time to at least study English and I didn't do it. I deeply regret it."

Coming from a man who conquered every stadium on the planet, the admission struck a chord because it is so human. Language, unlike football, was a contest Messi never entered.

'I always thought: what an idiot, how I wasted my time'

Messi described moments throughout his career when his lack of English left him feeling cut off – standing alongside extraordinary people he could not properly talk to. "I experienced situations where I was with incredible and spectacular personalities, where I could have talked and had a chat, but you feel half-ignorant," he said.

"I always thought: 'What an idiot, how I wasted my time.' When you're young, you don't realise it."

For two decades at the top of the sport, Messi has been a one-language man in a multilingual world. He speaks Spanish wherever he goes, often with a translator at his side when English is needed. The admission is remarkable because Messi rarely opens up about anything outside football – and when he does, it is usually to talk about family.

It also reframes what regret means for someone of his stature. Messi's career contains no sporting what-ifs: he won the World Cup in 2022, the Copa America, and every club honour available. His regret is about connection, not silverware.

The lesson he is passing to his children

Messi said the regret has directly shaped how he parents his three children – Mateo, Thiago and Ciro. Where he wasted the opportunity, he is determined they will not.

"Today, that's what I tell my children: [the importance of] having a good education, studying, and being prepared," he said. "I always tell my children to take advantage of it. They have a different situation from the one I had, although I never lacked anything."

Raised in the United States since joining Inter Miami in 2023, the Messi children are growing up bilingual – the very thing their father never managed. Messi noted that their circumstances are completely different from his own childhood in Rosario, even though, as he put it, he never lacked the essentials.

School was 'a disaster' before Barcelona

Messi also explained why English – and school in general – slipped through his fingers. His final year of schooling in Argentina coincided with the life-changing move to Barcelona.

"It [my last year of school in Argentina] was a disaster," he admitted. "I knew that I was leaving [for Barcelona]. At Barcelona, I finished my high school with the other children who went to [Barcelona's youth academy] La Masia."

Everything in that period was football. A 13-year-old Messi was focused on surviving at La Masia, adapting to a new country and a new life. English classes simply never happened, and by the time he was an adult superstar, the habit of not learning was set.

A life lesson from the world's best

Messi closed the reflection the way he closes everything – with the perspective of someone who has learned more from the journey than the destination. "I was able to do everything and reach the top [in football], but along the way, there are many experiences and lessons learned," he said.

"It's true that football is a way of life. It teaches you a lot, it gives you a lot of values. It creates lifelong bonds. You get to know places."

The timing of the resurfaced interview has made it land harder. This was the week Messi said goodbye to Argentina – the "saddest day of my career," in his own words – and walked off the Monumental pitch for the last time. Fans spent the week celebrating what he gave them; his English regret is a reminder of the one thing he feels he kept from himself.

If the greatest player of all time can still wish he had studied harder, the rest of us have no excuse.

Why the story matters now

The podcast originally aired earlier this year, but it has been recirculated this week because it captures the reflective mood of Messi's farewell. Argentina's 3-0 win over Benin on October 6 was not just a friendly – it was the end of the most decorated international career in the country's history: 21 years, a World Cup, and a love story with the fans that took decades to fully bloom.

Messi told the Monumental crowd he would "like to play for the rest of my life" for Argentina. He cannot. But he can make sure his children, growing up between Miami and the wider world, never stand in a room full of extraordinary people feeling half-ignorant. That, in the end, is the one victory he is still chasing – and this time he intends to win it.

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