Rosario received Lionel Messi home on Friday morning, not with a match to play but with the final Argentina chapter drawing close. The Inter Miami forward arrived from the United States four days before Tuesday’s friendly against Benin at Buenos Aires’ Monumental, the occasion arranged for his farewell before the national team’s supporters.
Messi travelled on a private aircraft with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo, their sons Thiago, Mateo and Ciro, and his mother Celia Cuccittini. The plane touched down at 7.00am local time at Rosario’s Islas Malvinas International Airport, before the captain headed to his home in Funes, on the outskirts of the city. He is expected to spend the weekend there before joining Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina camp.
His arrival came earlier than anticipated. Messi had been expected to meet the squad after Argentina’s Saturday fixture with Burkina Faso at the Monumental, the second of three friendlies in this international window. He is not due to feature in that game. There remains no confirmation that he will travel to Buenos Aires simply to be with the group.
A final night at the Monumental
Benin will provide the opposition on Tuesday, when the Monumental will host Messi’s last scheduled appearance for Argentina. Tickets for the tribute occasion sold out quickly, with the evening set to honour a player whose international career has stretched across more than two decades.
The friendlies follow Argentina’s defeat to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final. Scaloni has begun looking towards the next cycle, and Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Bolivia in Córdoba also marked the start of that generational transition. Burkina Faso and Benin complete the current programme.
Messi announced his international retirement on 31 August. In explaining the decision, he wrote: “I gave everything of myself. I have nothing left to give.” He said the World Cup final loss had brought him to the decision, although he waited to make it public until after the death of his father, Jorge.
The numbers behind an Argentina era
Argentina’s senior side first called on Messi for a friendly against Hungary on 17 August 2005. By the time he takes the field against Benin, his record stands at 207 appearances, 125 goals and 68 assists. He leaves as Argentina’s all-time leading scorer.
His years with the Albiceleste brought the prize that had long eluded him: the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. Alongside that triumph came Copa América victories in 2021 and 2024, as well as the 2022 Finalissima. For Rosario, Buenos Aires and the wider country, Tuesday is less a routine friendly than the final home gathering for a captain who carried Argentina from promise to its modern golden run.
