Lionel Messi plays his last game for Argentina, and scores

Argentina had billed the night as the Last Tango. Landmarks across Buenos Aires were lit in sky blue and white, ABC News reported, and thousands lined the road as the team bus came in from the training centre that carries Messi’s name. He was filmed wiping away tears on the way.

Hours earlier, in Rosario, where he was born, a giant number 10 shirt with the word Gracias, thank you, had been unrolled at the National Flag Memorial. Another lay across the pitch at the Monumental, where 85,000 people had bought every ticket for a friendly against Benin.

The tenth minute

His wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, and his mother, Celia Cuccittini, watched from a box above the pitch, along with Argentine players who had won the World Cup in 1978 and 1986. A veteran of the Falklands War sang the national anthem, and Messi welled up again. Benin’s captain, Sessi D’Almeida, handed him a gift and a letter at the handshake, and every Benin player shook his hand. In the 10th minute, for the number on his back, play stopped so the stadium could give him a standing ovation.

One more goal

The first half finished goalless, with two Messi free kicks saved. Three minutes after the break he took a corner that Nicolás Otamendi headed in, and in the 61st minute he set up Nico Paz to curl in a second. In the 71st minute Argentina won a penalty, and he put it into the roof of the net. It was his 126th goal for his country, in his 208th game, both records, 21 years after his first.

He played all 90 minutes. Afterwards a drone show over the stadium replayed his career, ending with him holding the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, and his teammates stood with him on the pitch to watch it.

Ten minutes

Then he spoke to the crowd for nearly ten minutes and admitted he did not want to leave the field. Some of his teammates, Enzo Fernández among them, were in tears, the BBC reported.

Even through the worst moments we went through, I never stopped fighting, battling, giving everything I had, wanting to always be here. I love all of you, and I will miss all of you. I am proud to be Argentine.Lionel Messi, to the crowd at the Monumental

He said the happiest day of his career had been at the same stadium, the night Argentina came home after winning the World Cup, and that playing for the national team was “the most beautiful thing that can happen to you.”

He is 39. He announced his international retirement in August and will keep playing for Inter Miami, where his contract runs to the end of the 2028 season.