Buenos Aires is preparing for a final Monumental chorus for Lionel Messi, with more than 85,000 people expected to fill the stadium overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday and sing his name one last time for Argentina.
Key takeaways
- Messi’s farewell with Argentina is set to bring together much of the World Cup-winning squad at the Monumental.
- Roma players Paulo Dybala and Nahuel Molina will not attend after their club refused permission because they were not called up and the journey is lengthy.
- Messi leaves Argentina with 207 appearances, 125 goals, 68 assists and six senior and youth international titles.
- His international revival after 2016 delivered two Copa América crowns, the Finalissima and the World Cup.
- He announced his retirement from the national team on 21 July, saying he had given everything.
From frustration to Argentina’s defining era
The emotion of the occasion reflects a relationship that was not always easy. For much of Messi’s Argentina career, expectation brought disappointment, particularly through a run of lost major finals that seemed to weigh heavily on the player and the country alike.
After Argentina were beaten in their second successive Copa América final in 2016, Messi briefly stepped away from international football. “For me, it is over with the national team,” he said at the time, adding that success had again escaped the side.
By then, his record already stood apart from most international careers: 123 caps, 61 goals and 39 assists, alongside Olympic gold from 2008 and the Under-20 World Cup won in 2005. Yet the senior trophy that had long eluded him remained the measure by which his time in the white and sky blue was judged.
His return changed the scale of the story. Messi added 84 more Argentina matches, 64 goals and 29 assists, guiding the side to consecutive Copa América titles, the Finalissima and, finally, the World Cup. The long wait for a senior global crown ended with an era that transformed frustration into a catalogue of historic achievements.
A record book reshaped
With 207 international appearances and 125 goals, Messi departs having rewritten Argentina’s statistical landmarks. He is the national team’s leading scorer and holds records connected to appearances at both World Cups and Copa América tournaments.
His standing also includes Argentina’s leading assist total, the most hat-tricks, and the highest number of World Cup victories by an Argentina player. The six titles across his international career complete a body of work that stretches from youth success to the game’s greatest prize.
When confirming his departure on 21 July, Messi said he had emptied himself for the cause. At the Monumental, the farewell will be shared with the teammates who crossed the final summit with him, apart from Dybala and Molina, who will remain away under Roma’s decision. For Argentina, it closes a two-decade chapter that began with promise, passed through painful near-misses and ended in a sequence of trophies that made Messi’s place in the country’s football history unique.
