There will presumably come a moment when it feels real.
Maybe Lionel Messi will walk out slightly slower than usual. Maybe the camera will find his family. Maybe 85,000 people inside the Monumental will produce the sort of noise that makes television microphones briefly surrender.
Or perhaps it will be afterwards.
Messi will take the microphone, look around a stadium full of Argentina shirts with his name on the back, and say whatever somebody is supposed to say when 21 years of their life have just ended.
It should be magnificent.
There is just one slightly awkward detail.
Yes. Benin.
Argentina have planned the Last Tango. Benin have somehow got an invitation
Tuesday night’s international friendly has been dubbed “The Last Tango”, which is suitably dramatic for Lionel Messi’s 208th and final appearance for Argentina.
The numbers attached to his international career have become almost silly.
Messi enters his farewell with 207 caps, 125 goals and 68 assists. There have been World Cups, Copa Américas, the Finalissima, finals lost, finals won, penalties missed, penalties scored, and that strange little retirement in 2016 when international football appeared to have finally exhausted him.
Then he came back and completed almost every remaining side quest.
Now, at 39, this is it.
Nicolás Otamendi is also expected to make his final Argentina appearance, while Rodrigo De Paul and Giovani Lo Celso have joined the group specifically for the occasion. Argentina’s 2022 World Cup-winning generation is being brought back together. Ángel Di María will be there.
There will be a ceremony. There will be nostalgia. There will probably be tears.
And standing on the other side of the pitch, wondering quite how they became supporting actors in Lionel Messi’s retirement special, will be the Cheetahs of Benin.
This is where it gets slightly farcical.
Benin did not even qualify for AFCON 2026.
In fact, if you wanted to find Beninese representation at that tournament, you needed to look beyond the players entirely. Assistant referee Nafissatou Yekini was the country’s presence.
Now Benin have been selected as the opposition for arguably the most significant international farewell of the modern era.
Nobody wants Messi’s last match to become Argentina 0-2 France with him trudging down the tunnel while somebody else celebrates in front of the away end.
Nor does anyone want the political fire of them playing England again.
Fine.
But there surely has to be something between that and this.
Could nobody else make Tuesday?
Italy would have been fun.
They have a fairly substantial football history. Argentina and Italy share enormous cultural connections. Messi beat them in the Finalissima at Wembley.
Admittedly, Italy don’t qualify for World Cups anymore, so perhaps they had plans.
Colombia are right there.
Mexico aren’t exactly on the other side of the planet.
Messi has spent the final years of his club career in the United States, which provides another obvious possibility.
And Nigeria?
Argentina used to be contractually obliged by some mysterious force of World Cup draw physics to play Nigeria every four years. Messi scored against them. Nigeria frightened Argentina repeatedly. The fixture has history, chaos and genuine affection attached to it.
Imagine bringing that rivalry back one final time.
Instead: Benin.
The argument will presumably be that Argentina did not want anyone ruining the party.
That is understandable.
It is also precisely the problem.
If you cannot find a sufficiently competitive opponent willing to play Lionel Messi’s international farewell on a Tuesday night in October, perhaps Lionel Messi should not retire from international football on a Tuesday night in October.
Wait. Give him a proper fixture. Get John Cena to introduce him onto the pitch.
Give the occasion an opponent capable of contributing to it rather than simply being booked for it.
Messi’s international career survived the Maracanã, Lusail, the altitude of La Paz, Germany, France, Brazil and approximately 700 tackles from Chilean midfielders. It feels strange that it will end in what threatens to become an extremely elaborate testimonial.
Which players are in Argentina’s squad against Benin?
At least Argentina are treating the occasion seriously.
The expected Argentina vs Benin friendly squad includes enough familiar names to feel like a reunion without turning the night into an exhibition.
Emiliano Martínez is expected in goal, with Otamendi potentially partnering Cristian Romero in central defence for one final time.
The midfield could contain several ghosts of tournaments past.
De Paul remains almost inseparable from the Messi-era Argentina story, while Alexis Mac Allister and Lo Celso offer Scaloni control around him. Nico Paz represents something rather more interesting: what comes next.
Paz has produced three goal contributions across his previous two international appearances and could operate behind Messi and Julián Álvarez.
That makes him more than an interesting young player on Tuesday.
He is part of the point.
Lionel Scaloni has already acknowledged that Messi’s absence can’t be solved by simply identifying another No.10 and handing him the shirt.
“Collectively, we will try to fill the void left by Leo,” the manager said.
It sounds obvious until you consider just how enormous that void actually is.
According to the FIFA Technical Study Group figures supplied for this preview, Messi was involved in 61.5% of Argentina’s successful attacking possessions at the 2026 World Cup.
You do not replace that.
You redistribute it.
Argentina’s next team will necessarily become less about one footballer, because practically every Argentina team for the past two decades has eventually bent towards Messi.
That transition begins properly once Tuesday ends.
Which gives the apparently silly friendly some genuine sporting intrigue.
For perhaps the final time, Argentina can build everything around Lionel Messi. Just like they did against Cape Verde and Venezuela.
Afterwards, they have to learn how not to.
Benin have had a fairly terrible journey to Messi’s party
There is another reason to feel slightly uncomfortable about the whole spectacle.
Argentina get their grand farewell inside one of South America’s great football stadiums.
Benin reportedly got 23 hours in economy.
The Cheetahs’ journey took them through Paris and Abidjan before eventually reaching Buenos Aires, with the travel ordeal reportedly bad enough that a member of their video-analysis staff fainted.
Their accommodation has hardly transformed the trip into a luxury South American break either.
Reports about the visitors describe problems including a lack of hot water and inadequate training facilities.
That creates an uncomfortable contrast.
On one side sits a wealthy federation staging an enormous celebration for arguably its greatest player.
On the other is an African national team arriving exhausted after a marathon journey to provide the opposition.
Questions surrounding the Argentine Football Association and the economics of these friendlies therefore deserve to exist alongside all the sentimentality.
Because somebody still has to play the other team.
Benin aren’t scenery.
Steve Mounié could commit an act of extreme rudeness
There is, admittedly, a very funny alternative ending available.
Steve Mounié scores. The former Huddersfield Town player.
Imagine it.
Eighty-five thousand people have arrived expecting Lionel Messi’s coronation, Argentina have spent the evening constructing the perfect goodbye, and suddenly a former Huddersfield Town striker heads in from a corner.
Mounié is precisely the sort of player Argentina should not become too sentimental around.
Benin’s captain has 23 goals from 71 international appearances and provides an obvious physical target through the middle. At 1.90m, his aerial presence offers the visitors a route towards goal that doesn’t require them to outplay Argentina for sustained periods.
Cristian Romero probably isn’t especially interested in allowing that.
Otamendi definitely isn’t interested in allowing it in his final international.
Still, set pieces do not care about retirement ceremonies.
There is also 19-year-old Rodolfo Aloko, who arrives after scoring twice against Mauritania.
Alternatively, keep an eye on Michel Boni if the 18-year-old Brentford striker gets an opportunity. Born in Milton Keynes to a Beninese mother and Ivorian father, Boni represents something much more important to Benin than Tuesday’s strange assignment.
After scoring 17 goals for Brentford B, the dual-footed 1.86m forward chose Benin despite his eligibility elsewhere.
For a country trying to build something capable of reaching major tournaments again, players such as Boni matter enormously.
Spoiling Lionel Messi’s retirement would merely accelerate the introduction.
It remains extremely unlikely.
Argentina have just beaten Burkina Faso 7-0.
Benin recently lost 5-1 to Togo.
Messi probably scores, doesn’t he?
That is what everyone has actually come to see.
Messi arrives in excellent club form, with 12 goals across his previous 13 Inter Miami appearances, and Argentina have assembled a team capable of ensuring his final international game takes place almost entirely in the attacking half.
Benin will presumably defend deep.
Gernot Rohr has essentially acknowledged the assignment.
The 73-year-old has said his players will try to recover from their journey, avoid conceding seven as Burkina Faso did and appreciate the honour of appearing in Messi’s final match.
It is refreshingly realistic.
Keep the spaces compact. Protect the centre. Survive the first emotional surge. Try to frustrate Argentina for long enough that 85,000 people start wondering why the commemorative evening is still 0-0.
And absolutely do not give Messi a free-kick 22 yards from goal.
That would defeat the exercise.
Argentina vs Benin on TV UK: How can I watch Messi’s final game?
For anyone in Britain willing to stay awake for football history, Argentina vs Benin is on TV in the UK through Premier Sports 2.
Kick-off in Buenos Aires is scheduled for 8 pm local time on Tuesday, October 6, which means midnight in the UK as Tuesday becomes Wednesday, October 7.
So technically Messi’s last Argentina appearance will happen on Wednesday morning for British viewers.
Even his retirement has stoppage time.
Argentina should win. Comfortably.
The expected pattern is hardly difficult to imagine: Benin retreat, Argentina circulate possession around them, De Paul performs his customary duties as Messi’s extremely enthusiastic bodyguard, and somebody spends 90 minutes desperately attempting to manufacture one final Messi goal.
For 21 years, Argentina have always had another tournament, another qualifier, another Copa América, another attempt at the World Cup, another chance for Messi to fix whatever supposedly remained unfixed.
Eventually, he fixed everything.
Celebrate him. Thank him. Watch the montages. Enjoy the goals. Allow 85,000 people their goodbye.
However, a great farewell deserves jeopardy. More than what Benin can provide, no disrespect, Steve Mouine.
