Messi says teary goodbye to Argentina in final game
Messi says teary goodbye to Argentina in final game
Telegraph SportWed, October 7, 2026 at 3:12 AM UTC
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Messi says goodbye after 21 years and 208 games for Argentina - Reuters/Rodrigo Valle
There were tears. There were tears on the team bus and tears in the warm-up. There were tears during the anthem, tears during the game, tears at the very end. And those were just Lionel Messi’s.
Argentina on Wednesday said an emotional farewell to their genius No 10 in his final international match before an adoring crowd in Buenos Aires.
The 39-year-old, who has played for Argentina for 21 years, scored and set up two other goals in a 3-0 win over Benin at the Estadio Monumental.
Supporters had chanted his name since long before kick-off, desperate for one last performance from the world’s greatest player.
Supporters inside the Estadio Monumental pay tribute to their talisman - Reuters/Matias Baglietto
They were forced to wait until the second half for the moment they had hoped for, when Messi fired home a penalty for his 126th and final goal for Argentina.
For more than 20 years, Messi’s goals have seemed as common as sunrises, but now the light is ending on a remarkable international career.
Argentina’s genius No 10 finishes as his country’s leading goalscorer - Reuters/Rodrigo Valle
Thousands of fans had lined the streets outside the stadium before the game – called “The Night That No One Wants to End” – to greet the team bus, with Messi at the window wiping away tears.
During the warm-up, fans chanted his name relentlessly, and he waved to his mother, Celia María Cuccittini, and wife Antonela Roccuzzo, who were in the stands.
Messi’s mother greets the fans - Getty Images/Luis Robayo
He came out for the anthem with his three sons, Thiago, 13, Mateo, 11, and Ciro, 8, and as Himno Nacional Argentino began he stood behind them, bowed his head and sobbed again.
Messi weeps during the national anthem as he stands with his three sons - Reuters/Matias Baglietto
The camera cut to Lionel Scaloni, Argentina’s head coach, and he was crying too.
As if Argentina were avoiding the inevitable, kick-off was delayed by 31 minutes.
His sons join the team for the pre-match photo - Getty Images/Marcos Brindicci
There were even tears once the game started, when in the 10th minute the match was halted for a one-minute ovation to honour Argentina’s No 10. Messi, weeping, waved to thank the crowd.
Was the great man nervous? It may only have been Benin, ranked 93rd in the world, and Messi has never lost at this stadium, but this was no ordinary match, even for him.
Messi dives at full stretch for an early chance - Getty Images/Marcos Brindicci
He missed a plethora of chances in the first half – none of them sitters, but all of them Messi-able.
In the 24th minute, he dived fully outstretched to meet a cross from Rodrigo De Paul, his Inter Miami team-mate, but could only skew his shot wide of the near post. As the stadium gasped, he laughed wryly.
He sees the funny side after missing a good opportunity to score in the first half - AFP via Getty Images/Juan Mabromata
Two minutes later, he had an opportunity from a free-kick 30 yards out but his shot was easily saved by Marcel Dandjinou, Benin’s goalkeeper. And shortly after the half-hour mark he volleyed wide from a Lautaro Martinez cross.
But Messi is Messi. Only three minutes into the second half he curled in a corner for Nicolas Otamendi to volley in from close range, Messi’s 68th assist for his country.
Benin kept out Messi and Argentina in the first half - AFP via Getty Images/Luis Robayo
His 69th followed 13 minutes later as he squared to Nico Paz on the edge of the box and the Como midfielder curled the ball home.
And then, in the 70th minute, the moment thousands inside the stadium had hoped for. A penalty, and no surprise who would take it.
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Messi whipped the ball inside the near post, his 126th goal in blue and white, and now his last.
Messi scores a penalty for his 126th and final international goal - AP/Gustavo Garello
Five minutes later, he missed one of the easiest chances of his 208-game international career when, seven yards from goal and dead centre, he managed to tap a perfectly placed cross wide of the near post.
By now he was at the centre of everything for Argentina – as he always has been – as the crowd urged him on.
With one minute to go he hit the post from 12 yards out. And in the 93rd minute he had one final chance, from a free-kick 21 yards out, to bring down the curtain in style, but he fired the ball over the bar.
At the final whistle, Benin’s players gaggled around him in the hope of a selfie and the referee handed Messi his cards.
Messi and his team-mates watch a drone light show after the final whistle - AFP via Getty Images/Luis Robayo
Then Messi and his team-mates gathered on the pitch to watch a drone light show above the stadium that beamed a giant No 10 into the sky.
Before the match, a giant shirt was flown over his home town of Rosario before being put on display at the National Flag Memorial.
Messi’s giant shirt on display at the National Flag Memorial in Rosario - AFP via Getty Images/Marcelo Manera
The thousands of fans in the stadium had in lots of cases paid inflated prices to be there.
The Argentine Football Association (AFA) had been accused of price-gouging, with some tickets on sale for more than £700 each.
A commentator for Vix, the Spanish broadcaster, said before the game: “Sorry to those of you who couldn’t be here, perhaps because of decisions made by people far away from the pitch.
“The prices for this match were certainly not for ‘the people’.”
Some fans brought in a banner saying ‘Los Malvinas son Argentinas’, or the Falklands are Argentine - AP/Gustavo Garello
Messi had announced his retirement after Argentina’s defeat to Spain in the World Cup final, when he fell short of winning back-to-back World Cups.
However, the Argentine Football Association convinced him to make one last appearance for “the farewell he deserves” in a match they said before kick-off would “transcend sports”.
Messi posted on social media pictures of him arriving to join the national team for the last time and his final training sessions.
“Special moments I know I will miss,” he wrote.
He achieved his ultimate ambition of leading Argentina to World Cup victory in Qatar in 2022 — emulating fellow Argentine great Diego Maradona.
Messi finishes as Argentina’s all-time leading scorer, including 21 goals in World Cups.
He briefly retired from Argentina duty in 2016 then enjoyed his most successful period with the national team, also winning Copa América titles in 2021 and 2024.
He continues to play club football with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, and recently won the Campeones Cup, his fourth trophy with the team.
Source: “AOL Sports”
