Lionel Messi has confessed that he would have retired from the Argentina national team had he not helped them to a third World Cup victory at Qatar 2022, during an interview on national television in his homeland.

The 35-year-old captained La Albiceleste to a 2-0 win over Australia in Beijing on Thursday and scored the fastest goal of his career to open their account inside 79 seconds.

Messi stated that he will not play at the 2026 World Cup in North America to Chinese outlet Titan Sports earlier this week.

Had Argentina not lifted the trophy in the last edition of the tournament, however, Messi would have ended his journey with them as confessed in an exclusive interview entitled The Key to Eternity.

"Not now, but I did suffer a lot and I had a very hard time," Messi said, in reference to past failures in the famous blue and white jersey.

"But I always had the desire to achieve something with the national team, and I had in my head that I was going to achieve it and that if it wasn't like that at least I had to try.

"After I won everything at the club and individual level, if I hadn't done it with the national team I would have been missing something," Messi pointed out.

"Throughout the World Cup I enjoyed it a lot, like it had never happened to me before. I knew it could be my last World Cup, and if we weren't world champions, I wouldn't be in the national team anymore."

Messi then explained that he cannot currently leave Argentina "and not enjoy all this" as a world champion.

"At the same time, I had enormous confidence and tranquility in the group we had," he added, in the event he had indeed stepped down from the international side of the game.

As for his club career, Messi revealed one of the biggest moves of his life a week ago when telling the Catalan media that he will join Inter Miami.

"Although at the beginning the decision was different, we are happy with [it]," he said, in a nod to how Messi primarily wished to return to boyhood club FC Barcelona.

"I am fine," Messi insisted. "Although at the beginning the idea was different, we are happy with the decision we made, prepared and eager to face a new challenge.

"I think that it was an important step but at the same time [we were] conscious of what it meant," he concluded.

Messi is expected to make his Inter Miami debut in a Leagues Cup home match against Cruz Azul on July 21.