"It was an honour to have played against you, and even more so to have made history alongside you." Neymar wrote those words on Instagram as Lionel Messi prepared to pull on the Argentina shirt one final time — a friendly against Benin, on home soil, the curtain call on a 20-year international career.
The two men shared dressing rooms at Barcelona and PSG. They also spent years as the two best players on the planet, trading Ballons d'Or, carrying their nations through tournaments that defined a generation. Neymar, who himself retired from international football after the 2026 World Cup, clearly felt the weight of the moment. "Anyone who loves football has enjoyed you throughout all these years," he wrote. "The whole world thanks you for everything you've done for football."
What Messi leaves behind
The numbers are worth sitting with. 203 caps. 124 international goals. Six World Cups, from 2006 to 2026. South America's all-time leading scorer. Argentina's most-capped player and top scorer — by a distance.
He won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, ending a 36-year wait for Argentina. He delivered back-to-back Copa Americas in 2021 and 2024. He scored 21 goals across six World Cup tournaments — second only to Kylian Mbappe's 22 — including a hat-trick against Algeria at the 2026 edition. At one point he held the outright World Cup goals record, overtaking Miroslav Klose, before Mbappe edged past him in the same tournament.
Messi announced his retirement on September 1, just weeks after Argentina's 1-0 World Cup final defeat to Spain, and days after the death of his father Jorge in Rosario at 68. He had been here before — he retired from international football in 2016 after a Copa America final loss to Chile, only to reverse course and lead Argentina to Qatar six years later. This time, it reads as final.
Still playing, just not for Argentina
He'll continue at Inter Miami in MLS, which means club football goes on. But the Argentina jersey is done. For anyone pricing up Argentina's Copa America futures or their 2030 World Cup cycle, that's the single biggest variable in the market — and there's no obvious answer for who fills it.
Neymar signed off his tribute simply: "Thank you for making me love football even more." Coming from the one man who arguably competed with Messi at that level longest, it lands differently than the usual retirement-day tributes.
