Lionel Messi leaves international soccer as an Argentine national hero, his extraordinary victories having given millions a welcome escape from years of political and economic hardship.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina is now facing a prospect that once seemed impossible: a national team without Lionel Messi.
On Tuesday, the 39-year-old Messi ended a 21-year international career marked by 126 goals, two Copa América championships and a World Cup title. He scored from the penalty spot and assisted Argentina’s other two goals in a 3-0 win over Benin. The friendly against the West African side might have been routine under different circumstances. Instead, it became the farewell Argentines had long feared.
“It feels like an era is ending, knowing he won’t play for the national team anymore,” said Valentino Ruso, 17, as he traveled to a friend’s home in Buenos Aires to watch the match. “I’m sad. I think everyone is upset today. He will be missed.”
Argentina’s relationship with Messi was passionate and, at times, harsh. The reserved teenager left his hometown of Rosario at 13 to join Spanish club Barcelona’s youth academy. As he developed into a global superstar of almost mythical ability, Argentines celebrated him while also questioning his loyalty and accusing him of lacking feeling for the country he represented.
By the end of his international career, however, any doubts about Messi’s commitment had largely vanished. So too had any uncertainty about Argentina’s affection for its most celebrated export. His success gave the country a reminder of its own potential during years defined by political uncertainty and economic instability.
“Argentines often say, ‘Thank God I was born at a time when I could experience the miracle of watching Messi play,’” said Andrés Rabinovich, a University of Chicago scholar who studies soccer’s place in Argentine culture. “It’s hard living in Argentina. Soccer is often one of the few things that offers you some respite, some joy.”
For years, the country argued over when Messi should step away and what his departure should look like. His Aug. 31 announcement, made weeks after Argentina’s defeat to Spain in the World Cup final, brought an immediate wave of appreciation and sorrow. Messi, however, will continue playing for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.
“I don’t know if there has ever been a love story between a player and a nation as great as the one you built,” teammate Rodrigo De Paul wrote on Instagram.
The Argentine soccer federation transformed Tuesday’s match — Messi’s 208th for the national team — into a farewell spectacle called “the last tango.” More than 85,000 tickets for Buenos Aires’ largest stadium disappeared within 90 minutes. Seats initially selling for roughly $60 to $300 later changed hands for more than $2,500 on resale platforms. Members of Argentina’s 1978, 1986 and 2022 World Cup-winning teams also returned to honor him.
When the final whistle sounded, Messi’s eyes filled with emotion as his teammates surrounded him and applauded. From the stands came a thunderous “Olé, olé, olé, olé, Messi, Messi,” while tens of thousands of supporters leaped, sang and bowed toward the field. A banner at midfield declared him the “Eternal Captain.”
“The truth is, I’m talking more than I ever have. I don’t want to leave here, I don’t want to leave this field,” Messi told the crowd, which erupted as though he had scored. “I just want to tell you that I love you, I’m going to miss you, and I’m grateful to God to be Argentine.”
Winning over his own
Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Messi collected countless club trophies and built a devoted following from Barcelona to Bangladesh. Yet the major title he most wanted — one with Argentina — remained out of reach.
To much of the world, Messi appeared to possess almost supernatural talent. At home, though, some saw an outsider who had never played professionally in Argentina and appeared unable to withstand the country’s enormous expectations. Supporters sometimes chanted “Diego, Diego,” invoking Diego Maradona, the charismatic leader of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup triumph. Messi’s understated personality, so different from Maradona’s swagger, only intensified questions about his national identity and patriotism.
DON’T MISS: Reality Star Faces Shock Elimination on Dancing With the Stars
After Argentina lost its third straight major final in 2016, Messi briefly walked away from the national team.
“There’s some resentment by the people that stay in Argentina for those who leave, this sense of, ‘They think they’re better than us,’” said Rabinovich, who relates to Messi’s experience as a teenage migrant. Rabinovich moved to Canada during Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis, around the same period Messi departed for Europe. “The old-school Argentines would say, ‘Diego is the Argentine. Messi is soft, a little Spanish boy.’”
The relationship began to change in 2021, when Argentina defeated Brazil to win the Copa América — South America’s premier championship — for the first time in 28 years. Messi crumpled to the field as ecstatic teammates rushed to embrace him. The player once criticized for seeming too detached wept uncontrollably.
“Winning clearly disarmed his critics. That’s how soccer works in Argentina,” said Diego Murzi, a sports sociologist at Conicet, Argentina’s national scientific research council. “Criticism of things off the field goes hand in hand with defeats on it.”
The following year’s World Cup victory in Qatar completed Messi’s transformation into a national icon. He had finally claimed the one trophy that had eluded him, prompting millions of Argentines to flood the streets in celebration, chanting his name and wearing his No. 10 jersey.
“I’ll never forget it. I’d never experienced anything like that, being out there with everyone, celebrating together,” said Antonia Correa, 70, a kiosk owner who recalled the celebration while waiting for a bus in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. “We saw that he wasn’t just an extraordinary player, but an excellent human being.”
In recent weeks, newspapers have hummed with nostalgic tributes and murals celebrating Messi have sprung up across the country. La Nación, a leading Argentine daily, released “Immortal,” a documentary chronicling his final World Cup run, and published a 196-page special edition devoted to his career. Since June, a 26-meter (85-foot) statue of Messi kneeling with the World Cup trophy has towered over passing motorists in Patagonia. On Tuesday, Buenos Aires’ landmark Obelisk glowed sky blue and white, the colors of the national flag, while news sites live-blogged every minute of the Benin friendly as if it were a World Cup final.
A jersey without an heir
Across Argentina, fans who grew up watching Messi as their parents watched Maradona have covered their skin with tattooed tributes to the soccer great, portraits of him kissing the World Cup trophy. It was easy to believe the world’s greatest player would always be one of their own.
“I don’t think we’ll have somebody like him again, somebody with that sort of enduring power,” said Pablo Brescia, a University of South Florida professor who writes about Argentine culture and soccer. “Like Maradona, he’ll be unique — a figure that can’t be repeated.”
Messi’s contract with Inter Miami runs through the 2028 season. But the ritual of watching him carry Argentina’s hopes and anxieties into every match is over.
“Watching Messi play, you felt anything could happen,” Murzi said.
When Tuesday’s match finally ended, the crowd remained, their ovation roaring through the stadium. Messi took a final lap, a tiny figure beneath the lights, soaking it in. At the tunnel, he paused to lift his arms toward his fans one last time. Then he was gone.
Copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
