Lionel Messi will pull on the Argentina shirt one final time after being named in the squad for a friendly against Benin on October 6, a send-off match that brings the curtain down on one of international football’s greatest careers.
The 39-year-old announced in August that he was stepping away from national team duty, closing out a 20-year run with the Albiceleste that included the 2022 World Cup title and back-to-back Copa America wins in 2021 and 2024.
Argentine Football Association president Claudio Tapia didn’t hide his emotion when confirming the call-up. “We made the decision to invite the best player in the world, the symbol of our national team, our captain, Lionel Andres Messi, so that he can have the farewell he truly deserves on October 6 here in Argentina,” he said.
The stage is set for River Plate’s Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, a venue that can hold 85,000 fans and Tapia is hoping it will be packed with familiar faces too, having invited every member of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup-winning squad to share the occasion with Messi. He’s promising fans an “unforgettable” night.
Before that, though, Argentina open a run of three friendlies against Bolivia in Cordoba on September 30, their first outing since the heartbreak of losing the World Cup final to Spain, before facing Burkina Faso in Buenos Aires on October 3. It’s only in that third match against Benin that Messi is set to feature, walking out for what would be his 208th and final cap. He leaves as Argentina’s all-time top scorer, with 125 goals to his name.
The decision to retire came in the wake of a difficult period for Messi, following the death of his father Jorge last month. He’d admitted to having “serious doubts” about how much longer he could keep playing football at all, in any capacity.
“It was a decision that hurt and still hurts deep in my soul, but I understand that it is the right time,” Messi said at the time of his announcement.
He remains contracted to Inter Miami in Major League Soccer through the end of the 2028 season, so club football is far from over, it’s just the national team chapter closing.
The upcoming friendlies carry some added weight off the pitch too. FIFA recently ordered Argentina to play their next home fixture at half capacity, a sanction tied to a banner unfurled by players after their World Cup semi-final win over England, which read “The Falklands are Argentine.” The matches are also expected to double as the vehicle for player suspensions stemming from incidents following the World Cup final loss to Spain with Leandro Paredes handed a 10-match ban, Nahuel Molina ruled out for seven games, and Thiago Almada suspended for one.
For now,the focus for football fan and Lionel Messi is on October 6, a night built for one man to say goodbye on his own terms.