Messi's Farewell Video to Argentina: "Thank You for Loving Me"

Hours before his final appearance for Argentina, Lionel Messi released an emotional video message to the fans: "The moment has arrived. I leave in peace. I gave it my all. This jersey was my dream. My pride. And my life."

The video that stopped Argentina

With kick-off at Estadio Monumental barely hours away, adidas published a short farewell film of Lionel Messi across his social channels, and Argentina effectively ground to a halt. In the opening shot, the 39-year-old appears wearing the national colours, standing in front of an Argentina flag and staring straight into the camera.

Music fades in, and the film cuts to a highlight reel spanning his entire international career — from the raw teenager who debuted against Hungary in 2005 to the captain who lifted the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. Over the images, Messi delivers the voiceover himself.

His words, in full

"The moment has arrived," Messi says. "I leave in peace. I gave it my all. This jersey was my dream. My pride. And my life. Thank you for loving me so much. I will always carry you with me."

Translated from his Spanish original, the lines read like a deliberate full stop. "I leave in peace" answers the years of anguish — the boos, the missed finals, the 2016 retirement he reversed — and "I gave it my all" settles the only argument anyone ever levelled at him. Within three hours of posting, the video had been liked 1.8 million times, a number that keeps climbing toward the evening.

Delivered in his own quiet register, the voiceover carries none of the grandiosity of a marketing spot. For supporters who lived through the lean years — the three lost finals in three years, the walkout after the 2016 Copa América defeat — the phrase "I leave in peace" lands as the closing chapter of a very long argument. He never needed the noise around him; he needed the shirt. And in the end, he says, the shirt became his dream, his pride and his life.

Twenty-one years in ninety seconds

Few international careers survive the kind of arc packed into Messi's 21 years. He debuted for Argentina in August 2005, sent off within seconds against Hungary, and spent the better part of a decade as the most gifted player in a country that could not decide whether to adore him or resent him.

Doubt never quite left him until the trophies did the talking: the Copa América in 2021, the Finalissima and the World Cup in 2022, then another Copa América in 2024. Across that span he amassed 207 caps, 125 goals and 68 assists — national records in all three columns. Against Benin, the count reaches 208, and the ledger closes.

One last training session

Before the video came the final morning's work. On Monday, Messi completed his last training session with the national team at the Ezeiza complex that bears his name, moving from gym work to field drills under Lionel Scaloni's staff.

Afterwards he shared training-ground photos with his teammates and a caption in Spanish: "Momentos especiales que sé que voy a extrañar" — special moments I know I will miss. One fan, retail worker Nahuel Nieva, took the day off work to watch his hero train and told AFP simply: "You can't ask for more, that's it."

By all accounts it was a session like any other at Ezeiza, except that everyone present understood it would never be repeated. Veterans who won everything with him worked alongside the new generation charged with the post-Messi era — teenagers like Franco Mastantuono and Leonel Flores, who were not even born when Messi debuted in 2005. From Tuesday night, his boots will no longer touch its pitches in the Argentina shirt — although the complex now bears his name.

The decision behind the goodbye

Messi announced his international retirement on 31 August, just over a month after Argentina’s run to the 2026 World Cup final ended in defeat to Spain in New Jersey. According to reports of his announcement, the decision itself was taken in the days after the final, but he waited to make it official because of his father Jorge’s condition — and Jorge died two months ago.

"I gave it my all; I have nothing left to give, and besides, there are great young players coming up who deserve their chance," Messi wrote when he announced the decision. Against Bolivia and Burkina Faso earlier this window, Argentina’s next generation offered a glimpse of the future with 4-0 and 7-0 wins. Against Benin, the past returns for one night only — and leaves on its own terms.

The squad's farewell asado

Argentine football traditions do not change for anyone, and Messi's farewell week ended the way they always end: around a barbecue. On Sunday evening, after the squad regrouped at Ezeiza, Emiliano Martínez helped arrange a special asado for the captain — one final night of the ritual that has glued this group together through two Copa América triumphs and a World Cup.

Plenty of those around the grill understand what is ending. Rodrigo De Paul and Giovani Lo Celso were called up solely for the Benin game, raising the possibility that neither plays for Argentina again, while vice-captain Nicolás Otamendi is also expected to bow out. Names like Cristian Romero inherit the armband as the torch passes to a new generation.

Argentines measure the weight of a moment by the length of the asado, and Sunday evening’s gathering was about as long as they come. Emiliano Martínez, the goalkeeper who has stood behind Messi through the greatest nights of the modern era, was among those who made sure the evening happened. Stories will spill from that night for years — but the only public trace is a single Instagram photo of a group that knows it will never look quite the same again.

Tonight, the goodbye is real

At 20:00 local time, in front of more than 85,000 people at a sold-out Monumental, Messi leads Argentina out one last time. Benin — the Cheetahs, ranked 89th in the world — stand in the way of the fairytale ending, but the evening was never really about the opposition.

Messi's international career ends on his own terms: in peace, at home, wearing the shirt he once dreamed about. Club football continues — his Inter Miami contract runs until 2028 — but for the Albiceleste, the video said it all. Thank you for loving him. He will always carry Argentina with him.

Questions people ask

Follow Argentina vs Benin Live on matchday with our live score.