Eight Ballon d’Ors. Two Copa Americas. One World Cup. And now, one goodbye.
Lionel Messi retired from international football on October 6, and the Lionel Messi retirement that Indian fans have quietly been dreading for years is suddenly real. Twenty one years, 208 caps, 126 goals. Done. The farewell came in a friendly at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, where Argentina beat Benin 3-0, and Messi scored one and set up the other two. Because of course he did. Some people simply refuse to leave quietly.
The night was scripted like a movie
The Argentine Football Association billed it as “El Ultimo Tango”, The Last Tango, and the evening obeyed. Messi walked out onto the pitch with his three children, while his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and his mother Celia Cuccittini watched from a VIP box. Before kickoff, a giant Argentina jersey reading “Gracias” was unfurled across the grass, and the game itself paused in the 10th minute so the entire stadium could applaud his shirt number.
Then the football happened. Messi set up Nicolas Otamendi for the opener and Nico Paz for the second, before dispatching a 71st-minute penalty into the roof of the net. After the final whistle, drones lit up the Buenos Aires sky with images from his career, the most famous of all being him holding the World Cup trophy in Qatar in 2022.
He had announced his decision back on August 31, a little over two months after Argentina’s World Cup final defeat to Spain, saying the tournament had taken everything out of him. The AFA then tempted him into one final appearance, calling it the farewell he deserved. He accepted, and Buenos Aires turned up to say thank you.
Why this Lionel Messi retirement actually matters
Plenty of Indian readers stayed up past midnight for this one, and that says something. Football in India has grown on the back of exactly two players for two decades, and Messi’s name on a jersey is still the safest bet in any sports shop from Kochi to Kolkata. His 2022 World Cup triumph, with India watching in record numbers, turned admiration into something closer to devotion.
What ends now is not just a career, it is the defining rivalry in sporting history. Leadership transitions in sport always come with awkward timing, but this one hits different: the Messi versus Ronaldo debate has been the furniture of every football argument Indian fans have had since 2008. Messi bowing out first changes the shape of that conversation forever.
The international chapter is closed, but the club one is not. Messi continues at Inter Miami, and how he handles 39 year old legs in a league that keeps getting faster is the subplot to watch. If you follow his remaining club games, watch the minutes, not the highlights. The highlights will take care of themselves.
Even Ronaldo stopped to say goodbye
The most shared moment of the last two days did not come from Buenos Aires. It came from Instagram, where Messi posted his farewell letter and his oldest rival replied. Cristiano Ronaldo wrote that Leo had defended his country for so many years, that his story would last forever, and that he had all his respect. He signed off with a hug.
Twenty years of being measured against each other, and it ended with grace. That is rarer in sport than trophies.
Argentina now plays its first competitive games without its number 10 in over two decades, and the question of who fills that shirt will shadow the team for years. But for one night, none of that mattered. The Monumental got its last dance, and the little boy from Rosario who carried a nation got to leave on his own terms.
Gracias, Leo.