Cristiano Ronaldo did not mark Lionel Messi’s international retirement with a post of his own. He wrote three short lines in the comment section under Messi’s farewell announcement, and the counter started climbing almost immediately.
The comment reached 10,000 likes in under ten minutes and passed two million reactions within hours. It has since surpassed 6.2 million likes, overtaking every other comment ever posted on the platform.
Ronaldo’s message was short.
“Leo, so many years defending your country and a story that will remain forever. All my respect for what you have achieved with Argentina. A hug.”
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‘All my respect’
Messi posted the farewell on Wednesday, 7 October, the day after his final appearance for Argentina. The two players had barely interacted in public across more than a decade of competing for Ballons d’Or, league titles and World Cups, and much of the online reaction fixed on the simple fact that Ronaldo had chosen to write at all. One supporter under the post told Messi, as quoted by Yardbarker, that “football is so beautiful, thanks to the two of you.”
Messi’s own post has generated nearly 12 million likes and more than 595,000 comments.
A farewell written at the Monumental
The post Ronaldo was commenting on came out of a staged send-off at the Monumental in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, 6 October. Argentina beat Benin in a friendly, and Messi played a central role in all three goals.
“Yesterday’s match was my last, and I already miss wearing the sky blue and white shirt,” Messi wrote in the post Ronaldo would answer the next morning, as reported by Goal.
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Ronaldo’s second Instagram record in two months
Ronaldo already held the previous benchmark for the platform. In August 2026, he wrote a condolence note under the Instagram post Messi shared after the death of his father, Jorge Messi, and that reply crossed 6.4 million likes within days, Kerala Kaumudi reported at the time, setting what was then the record for the most-liked comment on the platform.
The retirement reply has now cleared that mark. Both of the record-setting comments on Ronaldo’s account are addressed to the same person.
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