Fifteen years ago, on a September night at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, Lionel Messi swung in a corner and Nicolás Otamendi rose to head it in. It was Otamendi’s first goal for Argentina, the only goal of a 1-0 friendly win over Venezuela, and the start of a partnership that would outlast four World Cups. On Tuesday night in Buenos Aires, in the 48th minute of Messi’s 208th and final international match, the same two men did it again: Messi supplied, Otamendi tapped in.

Argentina beat Benin 3-0 at a sold-out Monumental, in front of 85,000 people, early on Wednesday morning India time. Messi set up Otamendi, set up Nico Paz for the second, and then rolled in a 71st-minute penalty for his 126th goal in the sky-blue and white. Otamendi, 17 years a team-mate, was retiring from international football on the same night. The goal that opened their story in India closed it in Argentina.

The night itself: fireworks, a stoppage and a post

The football was almost secondary, and the organisers knew it. A giant Argentina shirt carrying the number 10 and the word “Gracias” was spread across the pitch before kick-off. Ten minutes in, play was stopped for more fireworks, another standing ovation and a handshake from every Benin player, according to BBC Sport’s match report. Benin’s captain, Sessi D’Almeida, handed Messi a gift and a letter during the pre-match line-up. Hours earlier, Al Jazeera reported, a huge “Gracias” shirt had been unfurled at the National Flag Memorial in Rosario, Messi’s hometown.

Once the ceremony was done, Messi played like a man who wanted one more goal than the script allowed. He had two free-kicks saved, missed twice from inside the six-yard box and hit the post in the closing stages. He played all 90 minutes. Lionel Scaloni started him in a front three with Lautaro Martínez and Julián Álvarez, and the numbers tell you how one-sided it was.

• Score: Argentina 3 (Otamendi 48′, Paz 61′, Messi 71′ pen) Benin 0
• Possession: 65.2% to 34.8%
• Shots: 19 to 7, with 12 on target for Argentina
• Saves by Benin’s goalkeepers: 8
• Messi’s line: 1 goal, 2 assists, 90 minutes, cap No. 208

Paz, who came on for Rodrigo De Paul just before the hour, scored two minutes after coming on. He is one of the players Argentina see as a possible heir to the No. 10 shirt, and he got his goal from the man who wore it for two decades.

What Messi said: “grateful, proud and at peace”

After the whistle, Messi spoke to the crowd for close to ten minutes. Some of his team-mates, Enzo Fernández among them, were in tears. It was his first game for Argentina since his father, Jorge, died in August at 68.

“There are so many emotions going through me right now,” Messi said, as quoted by the BBC. “The first person who comes to my mind is my dad. I leave grateful, proud and at peace. Thank you for everything.”

He called it “the saddest day of my career” in remarks reported by AFP, and was blunt about why he was going now. “The last World Cup was too much, everything I had to live through,” he said. “The match against England took a huge toll on us physically, and emotionally it was very big.” Argentina beat England 2-1 in that semi-final before losing the final to Spain in July, a defeat this site covered in detail in Ferran Torres’ extra-time winner and how Enzo Fernández’s red card shaped the final.

Scaloni, who cried during the anthem, gave the line of the night: “Never in my life did I imagine I would coach the best footballer in history.” He told reporters he had “never seen that aura in anyone else in my life.” Neymar, a team-mate at Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, wrote on X: “It’s not just Argentina that thanks you, the world thanks you for everything you did for football.”

The Kolkata chapter: where captain Messi began

For Indian fans, the Otamendi goal carries a weight most of the Monumental crowd would not have felt. On 2 September 2011, Argentina played Venezuela at the Salt Lake Stadium in the first match of Alejandro Sabella’s reign. Messi, newly installed as captain, took the corner; Otamendi, then a young Porto centre-back, headed the winner. Otamendi’s career record lists it as his first international goal. The Hindu has described that night as Messi’s first visit to India, when he captained Argentina in a FIFA friendly.

He did not come back for 14 years. When he did, in December 2025, it was a promotional trip rather than a match. The G.O.A.T. India Tour took him to Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi over three days with Inter Miami team-mates Luis Suárez and De Paul. The Kolkata leg went badly wrong. Messi spent roughly half an hour at Salt Lake Stadium before leaving without completing a lap, and angry fans threw seats towards the pitch. Mumbai was calmer, with Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Chhetri sharing a stage with him at the Wankhede, and the tour ended with a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. A 70-foot statue of Messi unveiled at Lake Town in Kolkata was later taken down over stability concerns.

So India has seen both ends of the Messi phenomenon: the young captain making a corner count, and the global icon whose mere presence overwhelmed a stadium. Tuesday’s goal tied the first image to the last.

The numbers he leaves behind

Messi made his Argentina debut in August 2005 as a 63rd-minute substitute against Hungary and was sent off less than a minute later after his arm caught Vilmos Vanczák. Twenty-one years on, the record reads differently.

• Caps: 208, Argentina’s most
• Goals: 126, Argentina’s most, and second in men’s international football behind Cristiano Ronaldo (146)
• World Cup goals: 21, second all-time behind Kylian Mbappé (22)
• Major titles with Argentina: the 2022 World Cup and two Copa América trophies
• Ballon d’Or: eight

He announced his retirement on 31 August, six weeks after the final against Spain, and the BBC reported he had written the message on 21 July, two days after that defeat. His full career is catalogued on his Wikipedia profile. Scaloni’s answer to life without him was plain: “The only way to make up for his leaving is to have a great team.”

Our World Cup 2026 coverage traces how close he came to a second world title in his final tournament, including Emiliano Martínez’s eight saves in the final.

Two farewells, two very different moods

The timing invited comparison with Messi’s great rival. While Buenos Aires lit its landmarks in sky blue, Ronaldo was in a public dispute with his own national team. The 41-year-old left Portugal’s camp in Copenhagen before last week’s Nations League match against Denmark, and in a statement this week accused coach Jorge Jesus of twice breaking his word, Reuters reported. Jesus has denied making any agreement with the player but left the door open for his return. Ronaldo says he is not retiring and remains available after any punishment.

One of them walked off to a drone show and a song from Soledad Pastorutti. The other is waiting to learn whether he will be picked for Portugal’s November games against Denmark and Wales.

What comes next for Messi

Club football continues. Messi’s contract with Inter Miami runs to the end of the 2028 season, and Guillem Balague, writing for BBC Sport, says it is reviewed year by year and that people close to him expect him to renew if he feels up to it.

The bigger shift is off the pitch. Balague reports that when asked whether he would rather coach or own a club, Messi chose owner. He bought fifth-tier UE Cornellà, near Barcelona, in April. Spanish second-division side CD Eldense announced him as its new owner on 1 October, subject to approval from Spain’s sports council, the CSD, and appointed former Villarreal coach Javi Calleja. He and Suárez also founded Deportivo LSM in Uruguay in May 2025, and the club won promotion to the third tier in its first season. Forbes put his net worth at about $1.1 billion in June.

The first date on the post-Argentina calendar is close. The Messi Cup, his under-16 academy tournament, doubles to 16 teams this year, with Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Arsenal and Cornellà among them, and kicks off on 25 October at Inter Miami’s facilities in Florida. Last year he sat through every match. For more on the global game, follow our football section.

Sources: BBC Sport, AFP, Al Jazeera/Reuters, NBC News/Reuters, The Hindu, Wikipedia.

Featured image: Lionel Messi during Argentina v Spain at the 2026 FIFA World Cup final. Photo: Bryan Berlin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0