Messi Still Among the World's Best at 39

Hours before his final Argentina appearance against Benin at the Monumental, the evidence keeps mounting that Lionel Messi is leaving the international stage while still performing like the best in the world.

The argument on the eve of the farewell

CBS Sports put it plainly on the eve of the friendly: at 39, Lionel Messi is not fading into a ceremonial goodbye. He remains genuinely among the world's best footballers, and his 208th and final Argentina appearance closes an international career of two Copa América titles, a World Cup and unmatched greatness.

Farewell tributes usually belong to players running on memory and reputation. Messi's is different. His 2026 with Inter Miami has been statistically monstrous, his goalscoring records for Argentina stand beyond reach, and Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni continues to speak about him the way coaches speak about players at their peak rather than at the end.

Tonight's friendly against Benin at the Estadio Más Monumental is therefore less a testimonial and more a coronation — a final bow from a player who, by almost every available measure, could still walk into any starting eleven on the planet.

208 caps, 125 goals: the numbers of a record-breaker

When Messi walks out tonight, the cap will be his 208th for Argentina — the most ever by an Argentine player. His 125 international goals are also a national record, miles clear of every challenger in the famous sky-blue shirt.

For context, only Gabriel Batistuta's 55 goals come within half of that tally among Argentina's modern greats, and Lautaro Martínez — now third on the all-time list — still trails Messi by more than 80. Messi did not just break Argentina's scoring records; he broke them so thoroughly that nobody will touch them for a generation.

His ledger also carries a record 68 assists, a 2022 World Cup, back-to-back Copa Américas in 2021 and 2024, a 2008 Olympic gold, and a runners-up finish at the 2026 World Cup final in July — a tournament where he scored eight goals across eight appearances at his sixth World Cup.

The MLS season that proves the point

The strongest evidence for CBS's case comes from Messi's club football. Across the 2026 MLS season with Inter Miami, Messi sits on 21 goals after a spectacular free kick against the Columbus Crew on September 28 — leading the Golden Boot race — while also tied for the league lead with 13 assists.

Those are not numbers of a player winding down. He is the reigning MLS MVP and Golden Boot winner from both 2024 and 2025, and NBC Sports notes he remains on pace for a third straight MVP award — a feat no player in league history has achieved.

Only weeks earlier, Messi reached 32 goal contributions for the season (19 goals, 13 assists), the best mark in the league. At an age when most forwards have long since dropped into deeper roles or retired to slower leagues, the 39-year-old remains the most productive attacker in North American football.

Scaloni's testimony

Scaloni, who has coached Messi through the entire golden era — Copa 2021, Finalissima 2022, World Cup 2022 and the 2026 final run — gave the most striking assessment of all to La Nación this week: "Only nostalgia remains now that he won't be there. It's no longer just about the football; we have to keep playing. But the feeling of having him on the pitch is unique. That is what I would like people to understand: what he transmits on a football field. To everyone: to the opponent, to the teammate, to the rival fan, to his own. I haven't seen it in anyone else. That is what we are going to miss the most."

Scaloni added that Messi remains "an incredible example. The first to arrive, the last to leave, how he takes care of himself, how he faces each game." It reads less like a farewell speech and more like a scouting report on a player any coach would still build around.

A farewell staged for a king

The occasion has been constructed to match the career. Roughly 80,000 tickets for the Monumental sold out in about 90 minutes, making tonight's crowd one of the largest Argentina gatherings of the Messi era.

Before kickoff, the University of Buenos Aires will present Messi with its highest honorary distinction, Doctor Honoris Causa, in a ceremony at the stadium — recognizing what rector Ricardo Gelpi called Messi's example as "an ambassador of our popular culture and national identity."

Messi will wear a special gold-trimmed commemorative shirt for the night, the "jersey for a lifetime" he unveiled himself. Argentina's 2022 World Cup-winning teammates have been invited back to the Monumental, with Rodrigo De Paul and Giovani Lo Celso joining the matchday squad, and the opposition — Benin, ranked 89th and meeting Argentina for the first time — arrives with every intention of making the night a contest.

What tonight closes — and what it doesn't

Messi announced his international retirement on August 31, telling supporters in a statement that "after giving it a lot of thought, I want to let everyone know that I am retiring from the Argentina national team. It was a decision that hurt – and still hurts deep down – but I understand that the time has come. I swear to you that I always gave it my all."

The timing — weeks after the World Cup final defeat to Spain — means his final competitive memory in the shirt is a loss. Tonight offers a different ending: a full stadium, a ceremony, and a final 90 minutes that belong entirely to him.

Crucially, the retirement is international only. Messi continues his club career with Inter Miami in MLS, where the MVP race, the playoffs and more records await. Argentina is saying goodbye to its greatest player — but the player himself is not done yet.

Questions people ask

All of our farewell coverage is on Argentina vs Benin.