Benin Assistant Tunde Adelakun Accuses Messi of 'Wild Detour' to Avoid Players After Farewell

The row over Benin's treatment at Messi's Argentina farewell has deepened, with Benin assistant coach Tunde Adelakun claiming the Argentina players 'blatantly refused' to engage with his team after the 3-0 friendly and accusing Messi of a 'wild detour' to avoid Benin players during his lap of honour.

Adelakun's claims: handshakes 'hurried and impersonal'

Benin assistant coach Tunde Adelakun has delivered the strongest criticism yet from the visiting camp after the October 6 friendly, accusing Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates of cold-shouldering the Benin squad once the final whistle blew. Speaking in an interview carried by African football media, Adelakun claimed the Argentina players showed a 'blatant refusal' to have anything to do with his team after the match.

He said the post-match handshakes were 'hurried and impersonal', and alleged that any attempt by Benin players to get close to the man they had come to celebrate was rebuffed by the security staff 'in a very hostile manner'. The assistant coach described the scene as deeply disappointing for players who had travelled across the world for what was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

Adelakun's interview was reported on October 11-12 by outlets including Citi Sports Online and Pulse Sports Nigeria, with a video of his remarks circulating on social media. His account adds a second official Benin voice to a controversy that has been growing all week, following head coach Gernot Rohr's own complaints about the trip.

The 'wild detour' during the lap of honour

The most striking part of Adelakun's account concerns Messi's lap of honour at the end of the night. According to the Benin assistant, a group of his players had lined up along what should have been Messi's natural path at the end of the lap, simply wanting the captain to walk toward them so they could applaud him on his big night.

Adelakun claimed that at the very last moment, Messi made a 'wild detour' and, in his words, consciously avoided the group of Benin players, walking instead toward the centre of the pitch. He called it 'a new low for a man revered by many', adding that in the minds of many young Africans, Messi 'could do no wrong'.

It is important to stress that this is Adelakun's version of events. Neither Messi, Lionel Scaloni nor the Argentine Football Association had publicly responded to the latest claims at the time of writing, and the farewell night was a highly emotional, heavily choreographed occasion with a drone show, concert and pyrotechnics, during which the players' movements were tightly managed.

From 'ecstatic' to furious: Adelakun's remarkable turn

What makes the new criticism especially notable is where Adelakun stood before the match. In comments reported by BBC Sport Africa and Kickoff in the days before the friendly, the same assistant coach had said that Africa was at the heart of Messi's remarkable career and that it was an absolute pleasure for Benin to be part of his final international night.

He even went out of his way to say that Messi should keep his final jersey rather than give it away, arguing that the captain deserved to enjoy the moment after everything he had given. Benin had been described as 'ecstatic' about their role in the occasion, with Adelakun noting he had personally watched Messi at the peak of his powers with Argentina.

The swing from those warm pre-match words to the current accusations suggests just how badly the after-match experience landed inside the Benin camp. Whatever the players expected from the night, Adelakun's account makes clear that the reality, at least for the visitors, fell far short of the celebration they thought they were part of.

A row that keeps growing: Rohr, Molina and the tunnel

Adelakun's interview did not come out of nowhere. It is the latest chapter in a saga that began days after the friendly, when Benin head coach Gernot Rohr told the French radio programme Rothen s'enflamme that his players were treated poorly in Buenos Aires.

Rohr said his players got no photos with Messi and no shirts from the Argentina players, and were kept out of the tunnel and the dressing room area. He added that he had offered Benin flowers in the national colours and that the only personal souvenir he secured was an old Messi shirt signed via Lionel Scaloni, who took it to Messi and brought it back.

Separately, French investigative journalist Romain Molina claimed on social media that the AFA gave Benin no bonuses and no share of the enormous revenue the farewell night generated, calling the African side 'mere props' for the show. Earlier still, Benin captain Steve Mounie had accused Argentina of 'playing dirty' on the pitch, and reports described a brutal 23 to 25 hour journey to Argentina plus hotel problems including a lack of hot water.

So far, neither the AFA nor the Benin Football Federation has publicly confirmed all of the allegations, and Argentina's players have stayed silent. But with each new voice from the Benin camp, the pressure for an official response grows.

What happened on the pitch: Argentina 3-0 Benin

For all the off-field drama, the football itself delivered the scripted ending Argentina wanted. The October 6 friendly at the Estadio Mas Monumental was billed as Messi's final appearance for Argentina after 21 years of international football, and the captain played his part in a 3-0 victory.

Messi set up Nicolas Otamendi's opening goal in the 48th minute and then teed up youngster Nico Paz for the second, before converting a 71st-minute penalty to complete the scoring. It was his 126th international goal on his 208th and final cap, a fitting personal milestone on a night of tears, tributes and fireworks.

The match closed the curtain on an international career that included the 2022 World Cup, Copa America titles in 2021 and 2024, and two and a half months after Argentina's defeat to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final. Messi had announced his retirement from international duty in August, saying he had nothing left to give and that young players deserved their chance.

What happens next in the farewell fallout

With Adelakun now on the record, the farewell fallout has become one of the ugliest post-scripts to a retirement night in recent memory. The AFA has so far chosen silence, but the combination of Rohr's radio interview, Molina's financial claims and now Adelakun's pointed account makes the 'props' narrative harder to ignore.

For Messi, the episode is an unwelcome coda to a night that was meant to be a pure celebration of his 21 years with Argentina. His international career is over, and attention will now shift to how he closes out his club career with Inter Miami, where he remains under contract through 2028.

Whether the Benin camp's version of the farewell night is ever answered from the Argentine side remains the open question. Until then, the image of the greatest player of his generation being accused of walking the long way around his opponents' applause will linger over one of football's most emotional goodbyes.

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