Lionel Messi farewell: Argentina superstar still one of the best as he preps for final national team match

Tuesday's friendly against Benin in Buenos Aires brings a curtain down on a legendary international career that delivered two Copa America titles, a World Cup and unmatched greatness

Oct 5, 2026 at 10:43 am ET • 4 min read

Two hundred and seven games played, one more to go and still it feels like the highest levels of the game should not be done with Lionel Messi. On Tuesday he will play his final game for the Argentinian national team, a friendly against Benin at Buenos Aires' Estadio Monumental that will function more as a send off to the class of 2022 and its brilliant leader.

Messi will continue at club level, his contract with Inter Miami taking him to 2028, by which time he will be 41 years old. A swansong at that year's Copa America never quite seemed guaranteed but it might have afforded him the sort of ending -- retaining Argentina's continental crown, perhaps while breaking the tournament's scoring record -- that only the greatest merit.

Of course Messi has retired from international duty before but there was no way anyone could allow his ending to come after he missed a penalty against Chile in 2016. Too many Argentinian fans had hounded him, holding their best player primarily responsible for the trophies they had not won. Now Messi will get the send off of a champion. On announcing his retirement in the weeks after his father's passing, he said he had "nothing left to give". It is also true that there was nothing left for Argentina to take. Two Copa Americas and the long-awaited third World Cup. That's not to be sniffed at even if, based on his most recent performances, there might have been plenty more in the tank.

Ultimately our last look at how Messi compares to the very best on the planet came at MetLife Stadium two months ago, the defeat to Spain that was in keeping with so much of his international career, the 10 men who relied on the greatest player of any generation unable to quite resist the strength of a true 11-man unit across the field. The glory of Qatar was the exception rather than the rule, the year when the supporting cast did just enough, when Messi was the best he ever was.

The tinge of disappointment in the ending is that 22 years through his senior career, Messi was still one of the best on the planet. Before the World Cup the question was whether his ludicrous form in MLS told us more about soccer in America than it did about its brightest star. He offered the most resounding response he could, eight goals and four assists, a contender put on his back once more.

To the last Messi was a magnificent outlier. He ended the tournament with 7.91 non-penalty expceted goals plus expected assists, more than 10 percent greater than second placed Kylian Mbappe. Plenty of 39 year olds have long since succumbed to the aches and strains of middle age, Messi was breezing through one v ones more successfully than Vinicius Junior or Bradley Barcola. On average a player at the World Cup who played over 300 minutes delivered 0.5 expected assists across the course of the tournament. Messi was putting that up every game. He was what he had always been: both one of the best scorers and undeniably the great creator.

Those doubts from the beginning of the tournament may have been emphatically addressed but whatever lens you viewed his tournament through -- fan, stats nerd, entranced neutral -- you wanted to know more about Messi. How much of the verve he showed in an Argentina shirt was a reflection of the fact that he had played only 1243 league minutes prior to the tournament? He was this good against the representatives from the European leagues at their most heavy-legged, could he do the same damage on a regular basis in the Champions League? It is a pity to never find out.

The prospect of Messi ending his career where it began in Barcelona has long been fading from view with Xavi claiming earlier this year that president Joan Laporta had blocked a return in 2023 for political reasons. By the time the World Cup came around the 39 year old had already committed what are surely the final years of his club career to MLS, where he seems to have the space and time that he had to carefully eke out in a Barcelona shirt.

There is still work to be done at Inter Miami. With 931 career goals to his name there might just about be a path to four figures; at his current scoring rate Messi would require another 80 club games. Either a bit of injury luck or one more year on his contract gets him there, if that matters. A record third MLS MVP? A CONCACAF Champions Cup? Nice to have but they are barely even footnotes for 

Does it feel somewhat insubstantial to see the best player ever stat pad against CF Montreal and Sporting Kansas City? Of course. While he is still as exceptional as he was last summer, he should be testing himself in the Champions League. While he can still deliver on the international stage, why shouldn't he?

More than two decades into his career, it still feels like there are worlds left unconquered for Messi. Then again the best entertainers know that they should leave the audience wanting more. And doesn't it feel like we are only just getting started with the great man?