Neymar's Emotional Tribute to Messi Hours Before His Final Argentina Game

Neymar posted an emotional Instagram tribute to Lionel Messi hours before his 208th and final Argentina appearance against Benin, telling him that the whole world, not only Argentina, thanks him for everything he gave football.

The message: 'Thank you, Leo Messi'

Hours before Lionel Messi walked out for the 208th and final time in an Argentina shirt, one of the most meaningful messages of farewell night came from the one man who stood on both sides of his career: Neymar. The Brazilian posted an emotional tribute on his Instagram on 6 October 2026, addressed directly to his former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain teammate.

"Anyone who loves football has enjoyed you throughout all these years," Neymar wrote. "Today is your final game wearing the shirt of your national team, your country, and I hope you enjoy every second of it and that all the tributes today make you happy."

"It's not only Argentina that thanks you, the whole world thanks you for everything you've done for football. Thank you for making me love football even more. It was an honour to have played against you, and even more so to have made history alongside you. THANK YOU, Leo Messi."

When the tribute landed

The timing made it hit harder. Neymar's message appeared on farewell morning, as Buenos Aires filled with travelling fans and the Estadio Monumental prepared for an occasion two decades in the making. Messi was about to become the first player in history to reach 208 Argentina caps, closing a story that began with his senior debut back in 2005.

Reuters reported his record entering the game as 207 caps, 125 goals and 68 assists. His own pre-match message was simple and serene: "I leave in peace. I gave everything." Neymar's tribute answered that calm with the emotion of someone who watched it all from the closest possible seats.

Barcelona and Paris: a decade of shared history

Neymar is one of very few players who can claim to have shared a dressing room with Messi at the peak of two different eras. They first joined forces at Barcelona in 2013, forming the celebrated MSN attack with Luis Suarez that swept to the 2015 treble. When Messi left for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, Neymar was already there, and the pair played together in France until 2023.

That is what gives the tribute its particular weight. It did not come from an admirer at a distance, but from someone who trained, travelled and lifted trophies beside Messi for the better part of a decade, and who knows better than almost anyone what the daily reality of his genius looked like.

'Played against you, made history alongside you'

The most revealing line of the tribute may be the one that holds both sides of their relationship: "It was an honour to have played against you, and even more so to have made history alongside you." Neymar and Messi have also stood on opposite sides of the fiercest rivalry in international football, Brazil against Argentina, trading nights when only one of them could walk away happy.

Neymar, long described by Reuters as Messi's former teammate and longtime friend, has never hidden his admiration. The farewell post turned that private respect into a public thank-you, written the way only a fellow great can: not as praise of numbers, but as gratitude for what it felt like to share the pitch.

Part of a night of tributes

Neymar's was not the only emotional voice around the Monumental. Rodrigo De Paul, Messi's Argentina and Inter Miami teammate, told Reuters: "He made me grow not only as a footballer, but also as a person... I want to tell him that I love him." Angel Di Maria, who shared the 2022 World Cup triumph, added: "Seeing him with so much happiness, and that tranquillity of knowing that he gave everything he had, is what makes us all happy."

Fans gathered outside the stadium from the early hours, with 19-year-old Jose Garracedo and 27-year-old Isaias Zenas among those quoted by Reuters on the magnitude of the occasion. The De Paul and Di Maria messages show what Neymar's put into words for a wider audience: the players who lived this era with Messi wanted him to know exactly what he meant to them.

Why Neymar's words will last

Football has a habit of moving on quickly, but some tributes land differently. This one mattered because of who wrote it: the Brazilian superstar who carried the hopes of Messi's greatest international rival, yet chose farewell day to say that the whole world thanks him. For a Brazil number 10 to publicly honour the greatest Argentine of them all says more about Messi's stature than any trophy count.

"Thank you for making me love football even more" is a line millions of fans could have written, which is precisely why it worked. Neymar, the friend and the rival, said it on behalf of all of them. As Messi took his final bow at the Monumental, the football world — Brazil included — said goodbye together.

A friendship forged in rivalry

What makes the Neymar tribute so unusual in farewell coverage is the flag under which it arrived. Brazil and Argentina share the most emotionally charged rivalry in world football, and Neymar wore its number 10 through many of its most painful chapters. For him to stand up on farewell day and say that the whole world thanks Messi was a small act of football diplomacy in itself.

Their friendship survived club transfers, Clasicos against each other in their prime, and World Cup heartbreak on both sides. Neymar celebrated Argentina's 2021 Copa America win from the tunnel in tears while consoling his Brazilian teammates, and he was among the first to congratulate Messi after the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar. Those moments explain why this message felt earned rather than ceremonial.

Sports Illustrated's headline for the story — 'Love Football More' — captured the essence of what Neymar wrote. His point was never that Messi was the greatest statistician or the greatest winner, though he was both. It was that he made a fellow professional fall in love with the game all over again, every time they shared a pitch. That is the kind of praise no record can outlive.

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