Argentina’s record appearance holder Javier Mascherano retired from international football following the 4-3 defeat to France at the World Cup yesterday.
“The time has come to say goodbye, now I am just another Argentina fan,” the 34-year-old Mascherano told Argentinian television with tears in his eyes.
Mascherano played 147 times for Argentina, and the loss to France was his 20th World Cup game from four trips to the finals.
The former Liverpool and Barcelona midfielder walks away after another failed attempt to win the World Cup in the Lionel Messi era.
“This story is over,” he added. “We gave everything right up to the last.”
Mascherano went past Javier Zanetti’s record of 142 games played for his country before the World Cup finals. He also leaves Messi in his wake. It remains to be seen if Messi stays to add to his total of 129 games.
“We did not start well,” he said after the defeat to France. “We recovered and got on top, but their equalizer really hurt us.”
Since his debut in 2003 Mascherano has won Olympic gold twice and was a runner-up in 2014 in Brazil.
“That’s football: A lot of the time you don’t get what you want. The important thing is that you can always say that you gave everything,” he added.