It’s both depressing and oddly fitting that New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, that giant air conditioner plonked in the middle of a sprawling parking lot, should end the international career of the greatest player in the history of the sport—not once, but twice.
Lionel Messi’s final competitive appearance for Argentina, the last he would ever play before his father passed away, was a defeat to Spain in this summer’s World Cup final. A decade earlier, that same potato field in East Rutherford was the scene of Messi’s first international retirement.
