Messi says goodbye to Argentina with a goal and a 3–0 win
Twenty-one years after his debut, Lionel Messi played his last match for his country in front of 85,000 people at the Monumental. He scored, he assisted, and he cried.
It ended the way you'd want it to. On Tuesday 6 October 2026, Lionel Messi played his final international match for Argentina, a 3–0 win over Benin at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, watched by a crowd of 85,000.
The matchOne last Messi night
He set up the opening goal for Nicolás Otamendi, then scored from the penalty spot in the 71st minute. Nico Paz added the third. It was Messi's 126th goal for Argentina, in a record 208th appearance, at the age of 39.
Afterwards he spoke to the stadium. He told the fans he loved them and would miss them, and called playing for the national team the most beautiful thing that can happen to a player. He said he would have liked to keep going, and promised to cheer the team on from the outside.
The legacyTwenty-one years in blue and white
For years the knock on Messi was that he couldn't win with Argentina. He answered it in full: the Copa América in 2021, the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, Argentina's first in 36 years, and another Copa América in 2024.
He isn't retiring from football, and he is still playing his club football at Inter Miami. But the No. 10 shirt of Argentina now belongs to someone else, and that will take some getting used to.