For more than two decades, Lionel Messi has carried the hopes, heartbreaks and dreams of an entire football nation on his shoulders.
On Tuesday, that extraordinary chapter is expected to reach its final page.
The 39-year-old Argentina captain is set to make his final appearance for the national team when Argentina face Benin Republic at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, bringing an emotional end to one of the most remarkable international careers in football history.
More than 85,000 supporters are expected to pack the Monumental for what promises to be far more than an ordinary international fixture.
It will be a farewell to the player who transformed Argentina’s relationship with success, endured years of painful disappointment and eventually delivered the trophies that had once seemed painfully out of reach.
Messi has already made peace with the decision.
“The moment has arrived. I leave in peace, I gave it my all,” the Argentina captain said, according to football journalist Fabrizio Romano.
For a player who spent years chasing international glory, those words carry the weight of an entire era.
From heartbreak to immortality
Messi’s Argentina story did not begin with celebrations.
After making his senior international debut in 2005, the forward endured a difficult period in which individual brilliance repeatedly failed to produce the major trophy his country desperately wanted.
Final defeats followed one another, and the pressure surrounding Messi grew with every tournament.
But the story eventually changed.
In 2021, Messi finally lifted his first major international trophy with Argentina when he captained the team to Copa América glory.
Three years later, Argentina retained the Copa América title, further cementing a remarkable late-career transformation.
Then came Qatar.
At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Messi produced perhaps the defining chapter of his international career as he led Argentina to the World Cup title.
The triumph completed the collection of major honours that had eluded him for so long and permanently altered his place in Argentine football history.
“This shirt was my dream”
Now, as he prepares to walk onto the Monumental pitch for the final time as an Argentina player, Messi has reflected on what wearing the famous blue-and-white shirt meant to him.
“This shirt was my dream, my pride, and my life for years,” he said.
His relationship with Argentine supporters has also been transformed over the years.
Once criticised for failing to deliver an international trophy, Messi eventually became the symbol of a generation that watched Argentina conquer South America and the world.
Ahead of his farewell, he thanked the supporters who remained behind him throughout the difficult moments.
“Thank you for loving me so much, thank you for your support. I will always carry you with me,” Messi said.
A final night for the No. 10
The Argentine Football Association has prepared a special ceremony to mark the occasion, with members of the 2022 World Cup-winning squad and their families expected to attend.
Argentina are also expected to wear a commemorative kit, adding another layer of symbolism to an already emotional night.
And then there is the shirt.
Messi is expected to wear Argentina’s iconic No. 10 for the final time.
The AFA had previously indicated that the shirt would not simply be handed to another player following his retirement, underscoring the extraordinary status the number has acquired during Messi’s reign.
For generations of Argentine supporters, No. 10 has been synonymous with Messi.
The numbers behind the legend
By the time he steps onto the field against Benin Republic, Messi will have made 208 appearances for Argentina.
He currently stands as the country’s all-time leading goalscorer with 125 goals.
But statistics only tell part of the story.
His Argentina career has included painful defeats, criticism, tears, historic victories and ultimately the World Cup triumph that completed his international legacy.
The player who once walked away from international football after another heartbreaking final defeat eventually returned to lead his country to the biggest prize in the sport.
That journey is what makes Tuesday’s farewell so significant.
It is not simply the end of a football career with Argentina.
It is the closing of a chapter that began with a young Messi wearing the national colours in 2005 and ends with one of the greatest players in history walking away as a World Cup-winning captain and national icon.
What comes next for Messi?
Retirement from international football will not mean the end of Messi’s playing career.
The Argentine is expected to continue playing club football with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.
But whatever comes next, his relationship with Argentina will remain unlike any other.
On Tuesday night, the Monumental will not merely watch a football match.
It will watch the final appearance of a player who spent years carrying an impossible expectation, survived the disappointment that came with it and eventually gave Argentina the trophies it had been waiting for.
The final whistle may end Messi’s international career.
But for Argentina, the story of Lionel Messi will not end there.
It will live on in the trophies, the goals, the memories — and, perhaps above everything else, the No. 10 shirt.