United News of Bangladesh

Lionel Messi is set to play his final match for Argentina on Tuesday, ending a 21-year international career that transformed his relationship with the country and left the national team facing an uncertain transition after the greatest period in its history. The 39-year-old forward makes his 208th appearance for Argentina against Benin at River Plate's Estadio Monumental. He leaves as the country's record appearance holder and leading scorer, with 125 goals, after winning the 2021 and 2024 Copa Americas and the 2022 World Cup. Messi also led Argentina through this year's World Cup, where they reached the final before losing to Spain. He subsequently announced his international retirement on Aug. 31. His departure closes an era that once seemed unlikely to end this way. Messi spent much of his early international career under intense criticism from Argentines who compared him unfavorably with Diego Maradona and questioned his commitment to the national team. That changed after Argentina won the 2021 Copa America, ending a 28-year wait for a major title. The 2022 World Cup triumph in Qatar completed Messi's transformation from a divisive figure into a national icon, while another Copa America title in 2024 further cemented his status. The affection became especially evident during Argentina's World Cup celebrations in Buenos Aires in 2022, when millions took to the streets to celebrate the team's victory. Messi's final tournament was marked by both sporting success and personal loss. His father, Jorge Messi, died in August at 68, shortly after the World Cup. Messi had played through the tournament while his father's illness was largely kept from him by his family. Argentina must now replace not only its captain but also the player who has worn its No. 10 shirt since 2009. There have been calls for the Argentine Football Association to retire the number in Messi's honor, as it has done for no national player. But FIFA regulations require teams competing in its tournaments to assign consecutive squad numbers, meaning Argentina cannot permanently retire the No. 10 shirt for World Cup and other FIFA competition. The shirt could eventually go to an established player such as Alexis Mac Allister, who wears No. 10 for Liverpool, or to one of the country's emerging creative players, including Nico Paz and Franco Mastantuono. Coach Lionel Scaloni has said the shirt will eventually belong to a player who makes it his own. Whoever wears it, however, will inherit an extraordinary burden. Messi's successors will not be expected simply to fill a position but to follow Maradona and Messi, two of Argentina's defining football figures. Scaloni's future is also uncertain, while several members of the generation that won Argentina's recent titles are approaching the end of their international careers. Argentina therefore enters its next era without a realistic replacement for Messi. The challenge will be less about finding another No. 10 than building a team capable of succeeding without a player who shaped the country's footballing identity for two decades. Messi's farewell, meanwhile, offers a final measure of how dramatically that relationship changed. The player once criticized for not being Argentine enough now leaves the national team as a figure few in the country are willing to imagine replacing.