Lionel Messi will make his 208th and final appearance for Argentina in a farewell match against Benin at Buenos Aires’ Estadio Monumental, with more than 80,000 supporters expected after tickets sold out in two hours.
The 2024 Copa America winner accepted the tribute organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), despite initially believing the match was an attempt to exploit his name and generate millions in revenue.
Messi’s farewell comes more than 21 years after his international debut against Hungary at Budapest’s Puskas Arena on 17 August 2005. He was sent off only seconds after coming on. Diego Armando Maradona also began his Argentina career against Hungary, at La Bombonera on 27 February 1977.
Since then, Messi has scored 125 goals for Argentina and featured in two successive World Cup finals. He won against France in Qatar but lost to Colombia in New Jersey two and a half months ago. The defeat came as his father was seriously ill; soon after his father died, Messi announced his retirement from international football.
The planned celebration has been overshadowed by turmoil within the AFA. President Chiqui Tapia is on trial for tax evasion and other financial irregularities and requires formal permission to travel abroad, which will only be granted after he posts extremely high bail. Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni’s contract expires at the end of the year, and he has been considering his future for months.
The AFA scheduled three home friendlies during this international window against Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Benin. Scaloni said: “Of course, I would have preferred to face stronger teams.”
Argentina beat Bolivia 4-0, while Burkina Faso lost 7-0 in a match against their under-23 side. The fixture was labelled a “shameful friendly” after Burkina Faso’s senior team boycotted it.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the AFA uses a Colombian intermediary to locate smaller football associations that do not request appearance fees, travel on budget airlines and stay in economy hotels. Mauritania and Zambia visited Argentina this spring. Burkina Faso declined, but Benin agreed to play in Messi’s farewell without charge, satisfied simply to take part in the occasion.
Messi will also have the chance to increase his international goals tally as he continues to compete with Cristiano Ronaldo in the race to 1,000 career goals. Ronaldo leads with 979, compared with Messi’s 931, and has just been dramatically dropped from the Portugal squad.
Almost all of Messi’s team-mates from Argentina’s last two World Cups will attend. The player once faced criticism at home, with some supporters claiming he lacked affection for the national shirt and performed better for Barcelona, who signed him at the age of 13.
Messi lost his first four major finals: the 2007, 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals and the 2014 World Cup final. Under Scaloni, his ninth Argentina manager, that changed. Argentina won the 2021 Copa America, their first since 1993 and less than eight months after Maradona’s death, followed by the 2022 Finalissima against Italy, the World Cup in Qatar and the 2024 Copa America.
Those achievements completed Messi’s journey beyond comparisons with Maradona. Argentina’s other World Cup victories came in 1978 under Kempes and 1986 under Maradona. At 39, Messi then led a limited Argentina side to this summer’s World Cup final. After 21 years of rewriting the national team’s record books, he will receive one final embrace from his country.
