Lionel Messi will pull on Argentina’s sky blue-and-white jersey for the last time on Tuesday and enjoy an emotional farewell in front of his adoring fans in a stadium with a name to match his legacy: the Monumental. Millions more will be following the action at South America’s largest stadium, Buenos Aires’ Estadio Monumental, on TV. Some 85,000 Argentina fans will be on hand to watch the 39-year-old idol perform his wizardry in a friendly against Benin that brings down the curtain on his 21-year international career.
The most-capped player in Argentine history is hanging up his boots two-and-a-half months after losing the World Cup final to Spain. The results helped lift the gloom of the defeat in the World Cup final, when Argentina and a visibly tired Messi were outplayed by Spain and resorted to thuggish tactics that were punished with bans and fines for a number of players. In their first games since last week’s World Cup final, minus Messi, Argentina thrashed Bolivia 4-0 in a friendly in Cordoba on Wednesday before running rings around Burkina Faso on Saturday at the Monumental. Franco Mastantuono and Gianluca Prestianni, two of Argentina’s brightest young hopes, both scored their first international goals against Burkina Faso in a 7-0 romp. Messi is not only Argentina’s record appearance-maker but also its leading scorer with 125 goals in 207 games, as well as a record 68 assists. But there were tears along the way too, notably after Argentina’s defeat by Germany in the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil, their loss to Spain in this year’s final and their shock humiliation by Chile in the 2016 Copa America final.
Several of the teammates with whom he reached football’s pinnacle in Qatar, and who will lead the post-Messi team, will play in the game, including defender Cristian “Cuti” Romero, midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Enzo Fernandez, and forwards Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez.
