Under the lights at Buenos Aires’ Monumental, Lionel Messi brought a 21-year Argentina career to a close with one final decisive display. The 39-year-old captain scored from the penalty spot and created two goals in a 3-0 win over Benin, ending his international story with 208 appearances and 126 goals.
The Ligue 1 news
Messi leaves Argentina as both the nation’s leading scorer and its most-capped player. His farewell came on Tuesday night, in the match played into Wednesday morning, and had the familiar shape of so many of his biggest nights: a goal, two assists and a captain at the centre of everything.
The finish was a long way from the start. Messi’s senior Argentina debut against Hungary on 17 August 2005 lasted less than a minute. Sent on after half-time, he was dismissed almost immediately for an infringement.
That difficult first appearance followed a dazzling Under-20 World Cup in the Netherlands. Argentina won the tournament on 2 July 2005 by beating Nigeria 2-1 in the final, with Messi converting two penalties. He ended the competition with six goals, taking both the Golden Boot and the award for the tournament’s best player.
Olympic gold arrived three years later in Beijing, where Messi was part of an Argentina squad that also included Sergio Agüero and Angel Di Maria. Yet his wait for major silverware with the senior side would become one of the defining tensions of his career.
Final defeats and a brief farewell
Argentina lost Copa América finals in 2007, 2015 and 2016, while the 2014 World Cup final also ended in defeat. The loss to Chile in the 2016 Copa América final, decided on penalties on 26 June, proved particularly painful: Messi missed his spot-kick as Argentina suffered a third final loss in three years.
He announced his retirement from international football in the immediate aftermath. The decision did not last. On 12 August 2016, Messi confirmed that he would return to the national team.
The trophies that changed everything
The breakthrough came on 10 July 2021 at the Maracana. Di Maria’s goal earned Argentina a 1-0 victory over Brazil in the Copa América final, giving Messi his first major senior international title and ending a 28-year continental trophy drought for the country.
Then came Qatar. On 18 December 2022, Messi captained Argentina to the World Cup after a final against France that finished 3-3 before Argentina prevailed 4-2 on penalties. Messi scored twice in the match and lifted the trophy that had eluded him for so long.
His final appearance against Benin closes a record-setting international career that began with a red card, passed through years of near misses and ended with the Copa América and World Cup in Argentina’s hands.
