Lionel Messi is preparing to wear Argentina’s colors one final time. The 39-year-old is due to face Benin at the Monumental on October 6, closing an international career that began in 2005 and now stands at 207 senior appearances and 125 goals.
The numbers are extraordinary, but they don’t explain the full relationship. Messi’s Argentina story was built through long stretches of frustration, spectacular individual interventions and, eventually, a run of trophies that completely changed how his international career will be remembered.
12. The World Cup debut against Serbia and Montenegro
Messi was still 18 when he came off the bench in Argentina’s 6-0 win at the 2006 World Cup. Within minutes he had created a goal for Hernán Crespo, then scored one himself in the 88th minute.
It was his first World Cup goal, not his first senior Argentina goal, and the first glimpse of a tournament career that would eventually stretch across six World Cups.
11. The chip against Mexico in 2007
Argentina were already heading toward the Copa América final when Messi produced one of the most audacious finishes of his early international career.
Running onto Carlos Tévez’s pass, he lifted the ball over Oswaldo Sánchez from the edge of the area. Argentina won 3-0. The move had the imagination of the Barcelona version of Messi, but now it was arriving in an Argentina shirt.
10. The stoppage-time rescue against Iran in 2014
Iran had kept Argentina scoreless for 90 minutes in Belo Horizonte when Messi found a few feet of space outside the penalty area.
He shifted the ball onto his left foot and curled it into the far corner in stoppage time. Argentina won 1-0 and secured a place in the knockout rounds. They would eventually reach the final, with Messi winning his first World Cup Golden Ball.
9. The free kick that made him Argentina’s record scorer
Messi’s free kick against the United States in the 2016 Copa América semifinal was both spectacular and historic.
From well outside the area, he bent the ball beyond Brad Guzan and into the top corner for his 55th senior international goal, taking him beyond Gabriel Batistuta’s Argentina record at the time.
Argentina won 4-0. Four days later, however, another final defeat against Chile would send Messi’s international career into crisis.
The moments that changed Messi’s Argentina story
8. Winning the Copa América again in 2024
By 2024, victory with Argentina was no longer the unfinished ambition that had followed Messi through much of his career.
Messi had to leave the Copa América final against Colombia in the second half after being unable to continue. Argentina survived without him, and Lautaro Martínez scored in the 112th minute for a 1-0 victory.
The result gave Messi a second Copa América title and made Argentina the competition’s outright record holder with 16 championships.
7. The record-breaking week at the 2026 World Cup
Messi marked his 200th senior Argentina appearance with a hat trick against Algeria, the first World Cup hat trick of his career.
The three goals brought him level with Miroslav Klose’s then-record total of 16 World Cup goals.
Six days later against Austria, Messi broke the record. He scored twice, first moving beyond Klose with No. 17 and then adding another in stoppage time.
Messi would finish his final World Cup with 21 goals across six tournaments.
6. Turning Joško Gvardiol inside out in the 2022 semifinal
The goal belonged to Julián Álvarez, but almost everyone remembers the setup.
Messi received the ball near halfway with Joško Gvardiol tight behind him. He carried the Croatian defender toward the penalty area, changed pace, protected the ball and eventually turned toward the byline.
Messi then rolled it back for Álvarez to finish.
Argentina were 3-0 up on Croatia and heading to the World Cup final.
5. Two late assists against England in 2026
At 39, Messi produced one of the defining stretches of his final World Cup without scoring himself.
Argentina trailed England 1-0 in the semifinal until the 85th minute, when Messi created the equalizer for Enzo Fernández.
Then, in stoppage time, Messi delivered the ball for Lautaro Martínez to score the winner.
Argentina had turned elimination into a 2-1 victory and reached another World Cup final. More than two decades after his international debut, Messi was still deciding the biggest matches.
4. The hat trick that carried Argentina to the 2018 World Cup
Argentina entered the final round of South American qualifying outside the direct qualification places. Then Ecuador scored inside the opening minute in Quito.
Messi responded with three goals.
His hat trick turned a disastrous start into a 3-1 victory and guaranteed Argentina’s place at the 2018 World Cup.
After the defeats of 2014, 2015 and 2016, it was another night when Argentina’s hopes seemed to narrow almost entirely onto its No. 10.
3. The goal against Mexico that changed Qatar
Argentina’s 2022 World Cup had begun with one of the tournament’s great shocks, a 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia.
The response against Mexico wasn’t coming easily. More than an hour had passed without a goal when Ángel Di María found Messi outside the penalty area.
Messi took the ball and drove a low left-footed shot through the defense and into the corner.
The release was immediate.
Argentina won 2-0. From that moment, they wouldn’t lose again at the tournament.
2. Finally winning a senior trophy with Argentina
For years, almost every discussion about Messi and Argentina eventually arrived at what he hadn’t won.
That ended at the Maracanã in 2021.
Ángel Di María scored the only goal of the Copa América final against Brazil, and Argentina held on for a 1-0 victory.
Messi had scored four goals and supplied five assists during the tournament. When the final whistle arrived, he had his first major senior international trophy.
Argentina’s 28-year wait for a major title was over. So was the longest-running criticism of Messi’s international career.
The Copa América became the beginning rather than the culmination. Argentina followed it with the 2022 Finalissima, the World Cup later that year and another Copa América in 2024.
1. Lifting the World Cup
Nothing else can occupy the top spot.
Messi scored twice against France in the 2022 World Cup final. Argentina led 2-0, surrendered the advantage, went ahead again in extra time and were pulled back once more as the match finished 3-3.
Messi then scored Argentina’s first penalty in the shootout.
When Gonzalo Montiel converted the decisive kick, Argentina were world champions for the first time since 1986.
Messi won the Golden Ball for the second time and finally lifted the trophy that had hovered over almost every discussion of his Argentina career.
The image settled an argument that had followed him through lost finals, comparisons with Diego Maradona, his brief international retirement and years of questions about whether his greatest football would ever be enough for his country.
The story didn’t stop there.
Argentina defended the Copa América in 2024. Messi returned for a sixth World Cup at 39, broke scoring records and helped take Argentina back to the final in 2026.
Now comes one last appearance at the Monumental.
Whatever happens against Benin, the defining images are already there: the chip against Mexico, the rescue in Quito, the breakthrough at the Maracanã, the strike against Mexico in Qatar, the run past Gvardiol, the late assists against England and, above everything else, Messi raising the World Cup above his head.
Related: Messi receives an honorary doctorate from UBA before his Argentina farewell.
