The Last Night in Blue and White: Messi Closes a 21-Year Argentina Story
The 39-year-old scored from the penalty spot and assisted twice as Argentina defeated Benin 3-0 at the Estadio Monumental.
Buenos Aires did not treat Tuesday as a friendly. At the Estadio Monumental, more than 85,000 people came to watch Lionel Messi wear the Argentina shirt for the last time, and the night was built around that fact from the moment the team bus left the training centre that carries his name.
Messi, 39, had already said in late August that he was done with international football. The decision, he wrote then, hurt deep in his soul. Argentina's World Cup final loss to Spain in July, and the death of his father, Jorge, had already closed one chapter. The Argentine Football Association still asked for one home farewell. Coach Lionel Scaloni pushed for it in this window, unsure he would still be in the job later. Tickets for the Monumental sold out in about 90 minutes.
The match against Benin was billed as "the last tango." Kick-off was delayed. In the 10th minute the game stopped for a minute's ovation, a nod to the No. 10. Before the coin toss, Benin's captain handed Messi a gift and a letter. Messi had already been in tears on the bus, during the anthem, and again as he stood with his sons, Thiago, Mateo and Ciro.
On the pitch he still wrote the ending himself. After a goalless first half he set up Nicolás Otamendi — a teammate of 17 years, also playing his last international — for the opener. He then laid on the second for Nico Paz, one of the names linked with the No. 10 shirt he is leaving behind. In the 71st minute he scored from the penalty spot: his 126th goal for Argentina, in a record 208th cap, to make it 3-0.
At the whistle, teammates, opponents and the referee closed around him. A drone show put his image in the sky above the stadium. Scaloni, visibly emotional, has said Messi cannot be replaced. That is the practical problem Argentina now owns: two Copa América titles, the 2022 World Cup, eight Ballons d'Or, and no obvious successor.
Messi is not finished with club football. He remains under contract with Inter Miami until 2028. The national team, though, has had its last night with him. For 21 years the shirt was his. On Tuesday, Buenos Aires gave it back.