Lionel Messi brought an end to his historic twenty-one-year international career on Tuesday night, delivering a masterclass performance with a goal and two assists as world champions Argentina comfortably defeated Benin 3-0 at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires.
Playing in front of an audience of over eighty-five thousand spectators, the icon was directly involved in every goal of the match. He first delivered a corner in the forty-eighth minute to setup Nicolás Otamendi’s opening header, before creating Argentina’s second goal for Nico Paz in the sixty-first minute. Messi then rounded off his final international appearance by converting a seventy-first-minute penalty to lock in the victory.
The occasion had officially been arranged by world football’s governing body as a farewell event, following an earlier invitation by Argentine Football Association president Claudio Tapia to give the national-team icon a deserved home send-off. An emotional Messi remarked, “It’s hard to talk,” adding, “There are a lot of emotions, a lot of things going through my head.” He described wearing the national shirt for over two decades as a immense source of pride, stating that “Playing for Argentina is the most beautiful thing that can happen to you.”
The fixture pitted Messi against former Nigeria manager Gernot Rohr, who now leads Benin, eight years after the pair famously clashed at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Ahead of the encounter, Benin coach Rohr described facing Messi in his final national team game as a great honour. Meanwhile, Benin goalkeeper Marcel Dandjinou had insisted beforehand that his side would not act as passive spectators, stressing, “This is football: eleven against eleven,” and adding, “We are not here to do tourism in Argentina, we are here to play and compete.”
Despite the opposition’s determination, the night belonged entirely to the captain. The result concludes a legendary international career that leaves Messi as Argentina’s undisputed record holder, finishing with a total of two hundred and eight caps and one hundred and twenty-six goals for his country.