Nothing Left to Prove: David Squires Imagines Lionel Messi's Quiet Life After Argentina Farewell

For nearly two decades, Lionel Messi's calendar was written in ink: training camps, qualifiers, tournaments, and the crushing weight of a nation's expectations. Now, with his Argentina career consigned to history, Guardian cartoonist David Squires poses the only question that truly matters — what on earth does Leo do with all that free time? The cartoon, published by Guardian Football, is classic Squires: affectionate, densely detailed, and quietly hilarious. Rather than mourning the end of an era, the cartoonist imagines the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner whileing away the hours like any newly retired professional — small rituals, smaller pleasures, and perhaps the occasional pang for a roar that no trophy could ever quite replace. As for what the headline's 'true passion' actually turns out to be, that punchline is best discovered in the strip itself. It is fertile comedic ground, because Messi's international ledger genuinely closed with nothing left unresolved. Qatar 2022 delivered the crowning moment — a World Cup won in one of the greatest finals ever played, against France. Copa América glory in 2021 and 2024 followed, and he departs as Argentina's most-capped player and all-time leading scorer: the numbers behind a story no scriptwriter would have dared pitch. The timing gives the cartoon extra bite. When the FIFA World Cup 2026 kicks off across the United States, Mexico and Canada, Argentina will arrive as defending champions — but attempting to retain the trophy without the captain who defined the modern era in sky blue and white stripes. For a generation of fans, a World Cup without Messi will feel like theatre without its leading man, a subplot Squires cannot resist teasing. For devotees of the cartoonist, this is another entry in a body of work that has made him football's sharpest visual chronicler — satire rendered with a historian's eye and a fan's bruised heart. His latest book, Chaos in the Box, collects the best of it, and original artworks are available to purchase through the Guardian. For Messi, the joke lands close to a real truth: greatness on his scale never really clocks off. Squires simply wonders what retirement looks like for a man whose passion burned first, brightest and, finally, gloriously for his country. The answer, judging by the strip, is that legends don't fade — they just find new and stranger ways to fill the afternoon.