Messi scores his 126th goal and leaves Argentina with a 3-0 win over Benin

Lionel Messi closed a 21-year run with Argentina on Tuesday night at the Monumental in Buenos Aires. The scoreline was 3-0 against Benin. He made the first goal, made the second, and scored the third from the penalty spot. That penalty was his 126th international goal, and his last.

The match was a friendly in the first FIFA window after the 2026 World Cup. It was also the night Nicolás Otamendi left the national team, after 17 years alongside Messi and four World Cups. Buenos Aires Herald put the crowd at more than 85,000. A drone show followed the final whistle, after teammates, Benin players and the referee had gathered around the captain.

How the three goals arrived

The first half did not produce a goal. In the 23rd minute Messi missed a ball into space from Rodrigo De Paul. The game changed two minutes into the second half. Messi swung in a corner from the left. Otamendi met it. La Nación described the finish as a volley. The Herald described a header. Both accounts agree on the supplier and the scorer: Messi from the corner, Otamendi for 1-0. Otamendi had spent the better part of two decades arriving at the far post for that kind of ball.

The second goal, in the 61st minute, was the handoff the night was built to show. Nicolás Paz, one of the players talked about as a future No. 10, took the ball on the right and scored with a swerving left-footed shot from outside the area. Reuters and Al Jazeera credited Messi with the setup. La Nación described Paz's finish without lingering on the pass. The public record of the night treats it as Messi's second assist.

The third came in the 72nd minute. Benin defender Tamimou Ourou fouled Argentina right-back Agustín Giay. The referee gave a penalty. Messi put it in the top-right corner. The Monumental answered with the chant that has followed him for two decades. At 3-0 the result was settled. The number that will sit in the record book is 126.

What the shirt was closing

Messi first played for Argentina in 2005. The farewell covered a senior career that ran through five World Cups if Otamendi's four are the comparison point for the partnership, and through the 2022 title in Qatar that ended the long argument about his international record. Tuesday was not a qualifier and not a final. It was a scheduled friendly against Benin, chosen as the public close.

The separation of roles on the night is worth keeping straight. Otamendi's exit was announced alongside Messi's and completed in the same match, with the opening goal. Paz's goal was the first look, in this stadium and this window, at a midfielder already cast as a candidate for the vacant number. Giay, the right-back who won the penalty, is part of the side that will have to play without either of the two men who walked off.

Benin spent most of the night as the opponent in a ceremony. The foul by Ourou is the one action of theirs that entered the scoring chain. After the whistle their players joined the embrace. That is the extent of the match report that can be tied to a named Benin player.

The count, and what it does not include

The 126th goal is an Argentina figure, not a club figure. It does not move his Barcelona or Inter Miami totals, and it does not reopen the club career. He has not said, in the reports of this match, that Tuesday ended his playing life. It ended the blue-and-white part of it. The Herald noted that he had looked close to a goal in the 23rd minute and did not score until the penalty. The night's scoring load sat on the assist for Otamendi, the assist for Paz, and the spot kick.

Attendance is the other hard number. More than 85,000 is the Herald's figure for the Monumental, River Plate's ground, which holds a little above that when full. Al Jazeera's match piece, drawing on Reuters, described tears at the end and a drone show over the pitch. La Nación called the match the least important part of the day, which is a fair description of a 3-0 friendly whose team news was the retirement of two senior players.

Argentina now picks a captain and a No. 10 for the next window without either man. Paz has one goal in the shirt on the night the previous No. 10 left. The coaching staff has not named a successor in the reports of Tuesday's match. The concrete close is smaller than the ceremony: 3-0, two assists, one penalty, 126, and Otamendi's last goal for the country arriving from Messi's last corner.