Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni paid tribute to former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi immediately after the 39-year-old legend played his last match for his country.
“He's a unique footballer and I don't think there'll ever be anyone like him on the pitch after him“, Scaloni said after Argentina's 3-0 victory over Benin in a captain's farewell match.
“I've never seen anything like it in anyone in my entire life”, he added. “The aura he exudes - I've never seen it in anyone else. Without him... the team will look for other means, other solutions, but that feeling will no longer be there.“
In his last appearance in front of more than 80,000 spectators at the “El Monumental“ stadium in Buenos Aires, Messi scored one goal and assisted the other two. He thus ended his career with the national team with 126 goals and a record 66 assists in 207 matches since his debut against Hungary on August 17, 2005.
Messi began his international career in the shadow of another Argentine legend - Diego Maradona, whose mastery brought Argentina the World Cup title in 1986 in Mexico. In his first four World Cup appearances after his debut, he struggled to repeat that triumph before finally writing his name in golden letters in the history of world football by lifting the title in Qatar in 2022.