The Tribune

LIONEL Messi, the world’s best footballer, is taking a family holiday in the Bahamas to get away from the pressures of a long season and the disappointment of another major defeat for his team, Argentina, after which he shocked the nation by announcing his retirement from international soccer.

Messi, 29, posed for photographs in Atlantis with fans on Thursday night - one of them Syam Kum Leo Msdian posting on Twitter - and was seen on a boat on the break with his partner Antonella Roccuzzo, and their sons Thiago and Mateo. Employees at Lynden Pindling International Airport reportedly also took their chance to be photographed with him when he arrived by private plane. He is staying at the One&Only Ocean Club, Paradise Island.

Messi’s decision to retire – which came immediately after Argentina lost the Copa America final on penalties to Chile for the second year running – remains a shock in Argentina, where hundreds of fans gathered in the rain on Saturday in Buenos Aires to ask the national team captain to reconsider his decision.

Support for the five times world footballer of the year has been overwhelming on social media with sports figures, artists and politicians urging him to return. Billboards and signs across the city are also asking him to stay.

Messi, who moved to Barcelona at 13, has often faced criticism in Argentina because he has failed to deliver the country a major title – in contrast to his repeated club success at Barcelona.

However, Diego Maradona is urging fellow Argentines to leave Messi alone. In a radio interview, Maradona – who led Argentina to the World Cup in 1986 – also ridiculed people who have criticised Messi for missing his penalty in the shootout against Chile, questioning those who find fault with a soccer star’s play “without ever having touched a ball”.

“I consider Messi a winner,” said Maradona. Although he earlier joined in the chorus of Argentines calling on Messi to stay with the national squad, Maradona toned that down. “Let’s let Messi have his holidays,” he said. “From now on we have to build a unified idea and if Messi says ‘I don’t want more,’ we will have to present another team.”

The diminutive Messi, nicknamed La Pulga, the Atomic Flea, is Argentina’s record goalscorer with 55 goals in 113 international appearances, but he has never led the country to a major title, losing three championship matches in the Copa America, and the 2014 World Cup final to Germany.

“That’s it, I’ve already tried enough,” Messi told the Argentine network TyC Sports after the loss to Chile on June 26. “It pains me more than anyone not being able to be a champion with Argentina, but that’s the way it is. It wasn’t meant to be, and unfortunately I leave without having achieved it.”

American actor and film producer, Leonardo DiCaprio - along with his new girlfriend Nina Agdal - are also vacationing in the Bahamas, arriving on Thursday at the exclusive Over Yonder Cay private resort island near Staniel Cay and Little Major Cay in the Exuma Cays. A room at the eco-resort rents for a $75,000 a night for a minimum seven-night stay.