The Messi farewell went exactly as Argentina planned it: a sold-out Monumental, a goal and two assists, and a 3-0 win over Benin. In the same week, Cristiano Ronaldo was promising farewell matches from inside a disciplinary process. The angle comes from the Associated Press report from Buenos Aires.
The last goal Lionel Messi scored for Argentina came from the penalty spot, in the 71st minute of a friendly against Benin, into the roof of the net. It was his 126th international goal, in his 208th appearance, and both figures are national records. By then he had already set up the other two: a corner from the left that Nicolás Otamendi finished in the 48th minute, and a pass that sent the substitute Nico Paz through to curl in the second, in the 61st minute. Argentina won 3-0. More than 85,000 tickets had sold out in 90 minutes.
It was an ending built to order. Messi announced his retirement from the national team on 31 August, a few weeks after Argentina lost the World Cup final 1-0 to Spain. The Argentine Football Association then persuaded him to play one more game, which it called “the farewell he deserves”, and billed it as “the last tango”. Players from the 1978, 1986 and 2022 World Cup-winning squads were in the stadium, and a banner at midfield called him the Eternal Captain. Afterwards he told the crowd: “I don’t want to leave here, I don’t want to leave this field.” The career that began with a red card on his debut against Hungary in 2005 ended twenty-one years later with the stadium refusing to let him go.
Even the details of the night had a purpose. Otamendi’s goal came in his 140th and last cap, so two members of the 2022 side left together. Paz’s goal was the other half of the message. The captain’s last assist went to a substitute who was not yet a year old when Messi made his debut, on a night the federation had chosen. Argentina’s succession was not imposed on Messi. He handed it over.
Now look at the other great career of the era. Spain ended both men’s World Cups this summer, Portugal in the last 16 and Argentina in the final. Their two exits since have nothing in common. In the international break that Messi spent saying goodbye, Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of Portugal’s camp after Jorge Jesus left him out against Norway and told him he would not start against Denmark. Portugal won all three games he missed, and Gonçalo Ramos scored three goals in that span. On 10 October the Portuguese federation suspended him and opened disciplinary proceedings.
Ronaldo has not retired. In a long post at the end of the break, he apologised and wrote that “actions must have consequences”. He has argued that being captain should count against him, not for him. He also made a promise: “we will have one or more farewell matches”. Under the federation’s rules, a player who abandons the team without justification faces a suspension of one to six months, plus a fine. So Ronaldo’s farewell, if it comes, will be arranged after a disciplinary committee has finished with him, not before.
That is the real difference between the two endings, and it is not about talent or numbers. Ronaldo has more of both caps and goals: 234 appearances and 146 goals for Portugal, the only man in men’s international football ahead of Messi on either count. The difference is control. Messi announced a date and walked towards it. Ronaldo waited for a coach to decide, disagreed with the decision, and left. Argentina had a successor and gave him the stage. Portugal’s successor took the stage first, three goals in three games, and the captain found out from the bench.
None of this means the Messi farewell was the only right way to go. Messi is 39 and a World Cup winner with nothing left to prove. Ronaldo is 41, still scoring for Al Nassr, and has not retired from international football. It is easier to leave on your own terms when the terms are kind. But the contrast is worth recording while it is fresh. One federation had a plan for the end of an era and carried it out. The other is still deciding what the end should look like, and its captain has handed it the decision.
Messi now goes back to Inter Miami, under contract through the 2028 season. Argentina go forward with Paz, Mastantuono, Álvarez and Fernández. Portugal go to the Nations League with Ramos, waiting for a disciplinary verdict on the most-capped player in men’s international football. Two careers of more than twenty years, both knocked out of the same World Cup by the same opponent. One finished on 6 October at the Monumental. The other has not finished yet.
Sources: Associated Press (via WAFB and NY1), NBC Sports, Outlook India, blue News, Al Jazeera.
