More than two decades after making his senior national team debut, Lionel Messi will play his final match for Argentina on Tuesday night.
The 39-year-old star will bid farewell to the Albiceleste in a friendly against Benin at the Monumental in Buenos Aires, in an evening expected to serve as a tribute to the man who led Argentina back to the top of world soccer.
More than 85,000 fans are expected to fill the stadium, with many of Messi's teammates from Argentina's 2022 World Cup-winning squad also expected to attend. Rodrigo De Paul, Nicolas Otamendi and Giovani Lo Celso are among those returning for the occasion, while nearly the entire squad that lifted the World Cup in Qatar is expected to be at the Monumental to say goodbye to the captain. They will be joined by several young players expected to lead Argentina in the post-Messi era.
Messi enters his final national team match with 207 appearances and 125 goals, both national records. His international career has included the 2022 World Cup, two Copa America titles, the Finalissima and an Olympic gold medal. When the final whistle sounds against Benin, an international career spanning more than 20 years will officially come to an end, with his 208th appearance also set to be his last.
"I gave everything I had; I have nothing more to give, and besides, there are excellent young players coming through, and they deserve to get their opportunity," Messi wrote when he announced his retirement from the national team in August.
Coach Lionel Scaloni acknowledged that the void Messi will leave will be impossible to fill. "Messi leaves behind something that has no equal. We have to keep playing, but the feeling of having him on the field is unique. I have never seen anyone who transmits what he transmits on a soccer field, and that is what we will miss."
Messi begins emotional farewell to Argentina
Messi has already begun saying goodbye. Overnight, he posted a series of photos of himself in Argentina colors on Instagram and wrote: "Special moments that I know I will miss." Just hours before his final national team appearance, the brief message offered another glimpse into his mood as a chapter lasting more than two decades comes to an end.
Scaloni, however, is confident Argentina will remain among the world's top teams after the retirement of its legendary No. 10. "The Argentina national team will continue. We will remain at a high level, I have no doubt about that," said the coach, who is also in advanced talks over a contract extension.
Argentina has already offered a glimpse of what the future could look like without Messi. In the last two matches he did not play, the team beat Bolivia 4 to 0 and Burkina Faso 7 to 0, giving opportunities to players including Nico Paz, Franco Mastantuono and Gianluca Prestianni.
For tonight, however, the future can wait. In Argentina, attention is focused almost entirely on saying goodbye to the greatest player in the national team's history. Ahead of the match, Ole published an unusual tribute looking back at the "boy who was born in Rosario" and who went on to become one of the defining figures in world soccer, despite never behaving like the kind of superstar the system expected him to be.
"There are not many times when something like what will happen on Tuesday night takes place. The world stops," Ole wrote, describing the farewell as an event that goes far beyond a soccer match. "Today the world stops for Leo's farewell to the shirt he loves most. We know that nothing will ever be the same, but we also know how wonderful it was."
Argentina prepares to celebrate the captain it once questioned
The column also reflected on Argentina's complicated relationship with Messi over the years, from criticism, constant comparisons with Diego Maradona, and defeats in major finals, to the moment everything changed when the captain led the national team to Copa America and World Cup titles. Ole noted that the fans celebrating Messi tonight are the same supporters who spent years demanding he prove he could lead Argentina to a major trophy.
Toward the end, the writer returned to the boy from Rosario who used to arrive at the Grandoli club with his grandmother Celia and wanted little more than to keep playing with the ball. The idea was simple: Even after becoming one of the most famous people in the world, Messi never lost the child who chased the ball around a neighborhood field. The final line read almost like the ending of a movie: Evening fell; it was time to go home, and tomorrow there was school.
The Argentine Football Association is also preparing a full evening of events around the match. The stadium will open several hours before kickoff, musical performances will take place throughout the evening, and a drone show, fireworks, and other surprises are planned for after the game.
For the more than 85,000 people in the stands and millions more watching around the world, however, it will all serve as the backdrop to one moment: the final time Lionel Messi takes the field as an Argentina national team player.