Lionel Messi plays his 208th and final match for Argentina on Tuesday, 6 October 2026. Benin is the opponent, the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires is the stage, and the result barely matters. Kick-off is 20:00 in Argentina, which is midnight on Wednesday 7 October in the UK, and around 85,000 people will fill a sold-out ground for tributes before the game and a farewell ceremony on the pitch afterwards. One thing’s for sure: eyes won’t stay dry in Argentina.
The match at a glance
- Fixture: Argentina vs Benin, international friendly
- Date and time: Tuesday 6 October 2026, 20:00 Argentina time (00:00 BST on Wednesday 7 October)
- Venue: Estadio Monumental, Buenos Aires
- UK TV: Premier Sports, which is showing all three Argentina friendlies live in the UK and Ireland (one listing names Premier Sports 2)
- Why it matters: Messi’s 208th and last cap, the only game of the window he will play
How Messi got here, a bit of history
Lionel Messi was born in Rosario on 24 June 1987 and began at Newell’s Old Boys, a small boy with a growth-hormone deficiency whose treatment his family could not afford and his boyhood clubs would not cover, and Barcelona would, so he moved to Spain at 13 in 2000, and the story became one long ascent. Small boy, huge left foot.
The Argentina part began badly. On 17 August 2005, he made his senior debut as a substitute against Hungary and was sent off in under a minute for swinging an arm at a defender who had grabbed his shirt, a month after he had won the Under-20 World Cup with six goals. Argentina won the game 2-1. The red card is a footnote now, but at the time it sparked an argument about whether he could ever carry his country the way he carried his club.
📅 On this day, 21 years ago, Lionel Messi made his debut for Argentina and was 𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗢𝗙𝗙 just two minutes after coming on in a friendly against Hungary. 🇦🇷
🟥 He was being pulled back by Hunagrian defender Vilmos Vanczak and Messi elbowed him in the face, retaliating… pic.twitter.com/dEjxnuLv1g
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Footballtweet) August 17, 2026
That argument ran for 16 years. Argentina lost the Copa América final to Brazil in 2007 and won Olympic gold in 2008, then lost the 2014 World Cup final to Germany, when Messi took the Golden Ball for the tournament and went home with a silver medal. They lost the 2015 and 2016 Copa América finals, both to Chile, and after the second one, he announced his retirement from the national team. He was back within weeks.
Then it turned. Argentina beat Brazil in the 2021 Copa América final at the Maracanã, his first senior trophy for his country, and they beat Italy in the 2022 Finalissima. They won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after a final against France that finished 3-3 and went to penalties, and Messi scored twice in it. Another Copa América followed in 2024.
He reached one more World Cup final in 2026. Argentina lost it 1-0 to Spain after extra time on 19 July. He wrote his retirement letter two days later and posted it on Monday 31 August. He ended the message with the line “I love, loved, and will always love this team.”
Every honour with Argentina
- 2005: FIFA Under-20 World Cup (winner)
- 2008: Olympic Games, Beijing (gold medal)
- 2021: Copa América (winner)
- 2022: Finalissima (winner)
- 2022: FIFA World Cup (winner)
- 2024: Copa América (winner)
He also finished runner-up at the 2014 and 2026 World Cups and at the 2007, 2015 and 2016 Copa América. Individually, he won the Golden Ball at the 2014 and 2022 World Cups, and the Silver Ball and Silver Boot at the 2026 tournament behind Rodri and Kylian Mbappé respectively.
The numbers
Messi retires as Argentina’s record cap holder and record scorer. Before Tuesday, he had 207 caps, 125 goals and 60 assists, and Argentina won 134 of those games, drew 43 and lost 30. At World Cups alone, he played 34 matches, scored 21 goals and made 12 assists, including eight goals and four assists in 2026. Nobody has played more World Cup matches. On the club side, he owns eight Ballon d’Or awards and remains at Inter Miami, where his contract now runs to the end of 2028.
👕🔟 OFFICIAL: Argentina confirm no player will wear No10 shirt in the next games until Lionel Messi farewell.
Messi will wear No10 vs Benin at the Monumentál on October 6th and then time for new era from 2027. 🎞️🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/qCjeo55kP2
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 29, 2026
What to expect before and after the game
The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has been open about wanting a proper goodbye. Its president, Claudio Tapia, said Messi was invited so that he could have the farewell he deserves in front of his own people. The Monumental will carry giant flags, banners and special videos, and the association has promised “special guests” and dedicated tributes before the game. After the final whistle, a farewell ceremony will take place on the pitch, and one report says Messi may address the crowd with a microphone.
Argentina will also wear a one-off shirt. It reinterprets the Sol de Mayo design with gold trim on the crest, numerals and collar, and it carries Messi’s own logo where adidas normally sits, along with the number 10 and laurel branches. Coach Lionel Scaloni has described the night as pure melancholy.
Who could be there
The AFA has invited every member of the 2022 World Cup-winning squad, along with their families, to the stadium. That group includes goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who called the chance to say goodbye at home a dream for Messi, plus midfielders and forwards from the Qatar campaign. Rodrigo De Paul, Giovani Lo Celso and Nicolás Otamendi join the squad for this game only, and Otamendi is also saying goodbye to the national team.
That is where the confirmed list ends. No federation announcement has named individual ex-players, celebrities or musicians beyond the 2022 squad. Expect the wider Argentine football family to show up, but treat any specific name as a rumour until the AFA publishes it.
The match itself
Benin are ranked 93rd in the world and are coached by Gernot Rohr. They are the visitors to a sold-out house that will not care about the score. Argentina will be without Juan Foyth and Thiago Almada, who are injured. Messi, De Paul, Lo Celso and Otamendi skipped the friendlies against Bolivia (4-0) on 30 September and Burkina Faso on 3 October, so Scaloni’s side will look different from the two before it.
Nobody has confirmed how many minutes Messi will play, whether he will start, or where. The safest guess is that Scaloni starts him, lets the crowd have its moment early, and takes him off to an ovation at some point in the second half, which would give the 85,000 inside the ground a second chance to say goodbye.
