Tapia makes the invitation public
Argentina have given Lionel Messi a date. October 6, Estadio Monumental, a friendly against Benin, and a dressing room stocked with the men who won Qatar.
Claudio Tapia went on camera overnight to spell it out. The federation president said he had spoken with Lionel Scaloni before extending the invitation, then addressed supporters directly. “To all Argentina fans, I want to tell you that after a conversation with the national team head coach, Lionel Scaloni, we have decided to invite the best player in the world, our national team emblem, our captain, Lionel Andres Messi, so he can have the goodbye he truly deserves on Oct. 6 here in Argentina,” Tapia said in his video statement.
Messi accepted. Tapia then widened the guest list, inviting every 2022 World Cup winner who played alongside him in Qatar, families included. He called the night “the last tango”.
Try it for $0.99.
A retirement announced in August, a send-off arranged now
The forward closed the international chapter himself on August 31, in an Instagram post that arrived without a press conference or a scheduled farewell fixture. He leaves as Argentina’s all-time leading scorer and most capped player, with 125 goals in 207 appearances. No compatriot is within a hundred caps or fifty goals of those marks.
What the August post did not include was a date. Tapia has now supplied one, and built the evening around the squad that ended Argentina’s 36-year wait in Qatar rather than around the current roster alone.
Two selection details make that clear. Rodrigo De Paul and Giovani Lo Celso already sit in the general squad, but both have been called up specifically for the Benin fixture, a detail the federation went out of its way to confirm.
Two matches stand in the way first
Scaloni has work to get through before the ceremony. Argentina face Bolivia on September 30 and Burkina Faso on October 3, and only then does Benin arrive in Buenos Aires. Neither of those opponents will draw the attention this one will.
The Monumental holds more than 83,000. Selling it out for a friendly against a side ranked outside the world’s top 80 would normally be a stretch. This time the scoreline is the least interesting thing on the teamsheet.
Discover the rest of our football news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply