Lionel Messi had spent more than two decades giving Argentina nights to remember. On Tuesday, the country was given one final evening with its greatest No. 10.
In his 208th and final appearance for Argentina, Messi scored once and provided two assists as the world champions beat Benin 3-0 at a packed Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, bringing the curtain down on an international career that began 21 years ago.
There were fireworks, tributes and tears. But before the farewell ceremony began, Messi made sure his last match still looked unmistakably like a Messi match.
At 39, he remained at the centre of almost everything Argentina created.
One final masterclass
Messi helped create Argentina’s opening two goals before adding the third himself from the penalty spot.
His delivery set up veteran defender Nicolás Otamendi, who was also making his final international appearance, before Messi provided another assist for Nico Paz. He then converted a second-half penalty for the 126th international goal of his career.
The final score read Argentina 3, Benin 0.
The numbers told part of the story: a goal, two assists and another victory.
The scenes inside the Monumental told the rest.
More than 85,000 supporters had gathered not simply to watch an international friendly, but to say goodbye to the footballer who had become inseparable from Argentina’s national team.
For long stretches, phones were raised in the stands whenever Messi approached the ball. Argentine shirts carrying his No. 10 were everywhere. Every touch carried the knowledge that there would not be another one in the national colours.
From a nightmare debut to Argentina’s greatest story
Messi’s international journey began in August 2005 in circumstances that could hardly have predicted what would follow.
His senior debut against Hungary lasted only minutes before he was sent off.
What came next was one of international football’s defining careers.
Messi eventually became Argentina’s record appearance-maker and record goalscorer, finishing with 208 caps and 126 goals.
Yet for much of his career, success with Argentina seemed to remain painfully out of reach.
There were defeats in major finals, criticism at home and even a brief international retirement in 2016. For a player who had won almost everything at club level, the absence of a senior international title became the argument critics repeatedly used against him.
Then everything changed.
The years that completed Messi’s Argentina story
Argentina’s 2021 Copa América triumph ended Messi’s long wait for a major senior international trophy.
A year later came the Finalissima.
Then, in Qatar in December 2022, came the achievement that permanently transformed his relationship with the national team: the World Cup.
Messi captained Argentina to the title after a dramatic final against France, lifting the trophy that had defined generations of Argentine football.
Another Copa América crown followed in 2024.
By the time he walked onto the Monumental pitch for the final time on Tuesday, there was little left for Messi to prove. His farewell was no longer about repairing an incomplete international career.
It was about celebrating a completed one.
His Argentina legacy includes a World Cup, two Copa América titles and the Finalissima, alongside his national records for appearances and goals.
The final penalty
There was something fitting about Messi getting one last chance to score.
Argentina were awarded a penalty in the second half, and the captain stepped forward.
For more than two decades, countless important moments had rested on his left foot. This time there was no qualification at stake, no trophy waiting at the end and no argument left to settle.
Messi converted.
It was his 126th and final goal for Argentina.
The celebration was not wild.
The occasion was bigger than the goal.
When the final whistle became the beginning of goodbye
After the match, the stadium turned from football ground into farewell stage.
Teammates embraced Messi. The Benin players paid tribute. Fireworks lit the Buenos Aires sky, while a drone display formed a message of thanks to Argentina’s departing captain.
Messi addressed the crowd as supporters remained inside the stadium.
For Argentina, the significance extended beyond the retirement of another great footballer.
For much of the past two decades, every squad selection, tournament and major match had carried the same question: what could Messi do?
That question now disappears from international football.
Argentina without Messi
The national team must now begin something it has barely had to contemplate since the mid-2000s — life without Lionel Messi.
There will be another captain. Another No. 10 will eventually emerge. New attackers will carry Argentina into future tournaments.
But replacing Messi statistically and replacing what he represented are two very different challenges.
He leaves as Argentina’s most-capped player and leading scorer after a career stretching from teenage prodigy to World Cup-winning captain.
Messi is not retiring from club football. He is set to continue playing for Inter Miami, where his career extends beyond his farewell to the national team.
But the version of Messi wearing Argentina’s blue-and-white shirt is now part of history.
His final international performance could scarcely have been more appropriate: 90 minutes, one goal, two assists and one last victory.
The final whistle ended the match. For Argentina, it ended an era.
