After six World Cups and six international titles, including the 2022 World Cup, Lionel Messi retired his Argentina jersey on Tuesday night in an emotional goodbye. It was his 208th and final game, a 3-0 win over Benin at River Plate's Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, in front of about 85,000 fans, and he gave them two assists and a penalty goal.
As many Argentines can testify, twenty-one years is long enough for a country to grow up alongside a player. Messi, 39, leaves as Argentina's most-capped player and all-time top scorer, with 208 appearances and 126 goals. His six World Cups ran from Germany in 2006 to this summer, and his six international titles run from the 2005 Under-20 World Cup and the 2008 Olympic gold medal through the 2021 and 2024 Copa América, the 2022 Finalissima and the 2022 World Cup.
The day was made for him. In the morning the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) gave him an honorary doctorate. At night Argentina took the field in a one-off jersey with wider stripes and a golden 10, and most of the squad he won the 2022 World Cup with watched from the stands.
He did what he has always done for the team. Nicolás Otamendi scored from a Messi corner early in the second half, and Nico Paz finished from the edge of the area after another Messi pass in the 61st minute. In the 71st Messi took a penalty and put it into the top corner.
After the final whistle came a drone show, fireworks and music. Then he spoke to the crowd. "It was a source of great pride to wear this jersey for over 20 years," he said. "I never stopped fighting, never stopped giving my all." He added that "when we're united, we're stronger than anyone and can overcome anything."
The Original Announcement
Messi has had an emotional last few months. After Argentina's upset vs. Spain in the 2026 World Cup in July, his father, Jorge Messi, who supported his career as his representative, died in August at 68 in a clinic in Rosario. On August 31 he announced the end of his national-team career in an Instagram post of three handwritten pages. The caption reproduced the text in Spanish. "After all the time since the final, thinking about it a lot, I want to tell everyone that I am retiring from the national team," it begins. "It was a decision that hurt and still hurts deep down, but I understand it is the moment."
He explained why: "I emptied myself, I have nothing left to give, and besides, very good young players are coming up behind who deserve to be there." He closed with a promise to keep following the team: "Now I will be one more of you, cheering and backing from the outside (in good times and bad)."
A note at the end of the caption says he wrote the words on July 21, two days after Argentina lost the World Cup final to Spain. "Today, after what happened with my dad, I am more convinced than before," he added.
After the Shirt
The retirement covers only the national team. Messi's contract with Inter Miami runs through the 2028 MLS season, and he has said the club will be his last. After playing, he told the Argentine streaming channel Luzu TV in an interview that aired in January, he would like "to have my own club, to be able to grow it, to start from the bottom."
For 21 years he carried the shirt and a country's hopes, and on Tuesday night the entire country said thank you and farewell.