SportsCatch
EN

Neymar pays tribute to Messi ahead of his final match with Argentina

On the eve of Lionel Messi's farewell match with Argentina against Benin in Buenos Aires, his former teammate Neymar sent him a personal message on Instagram, hailing his impact on world football.

1 min read
Neymar pays tribute to Messi ahead of his final match with Argentina
Share

Lionel Messi will play his final match in an Argentina shirt this Wednesday evening in Buenos Aires, facing Benin in a friendly at the Monumental Stadium. Before this historic moment, one of the most notable tributes came from Brazil.

Neymar, Messi’s former teammate at FC Barcelona and then PSG, posted a message on Instagram to the 39-year-old eight-time Ballon d’Or winner. “Those who love football have enjoyed you over the years, wrote the Brazilian striker. Today is your last match with your team’s shirt, your country’s, and I hope you’ll appreciate every second.”

The message goes beyond simple friendship between two players: it underscores the historic sporting rivalry between Argentina and Brazil, which Neymar sets aside to salute an extraordinary international career. “It’s not just Argentina that thanks you, the world thanks you for everything you’ve done for football, he continues. Thank you for making me love football even more, it was an honour to have played against you and even more to write history at your side. Thank you Leo.”

Neymar, 34, is himself experiencing the end of an international era: he retired from the Seleção after the 2026 World Cup. The two men will thus have shared the greatest stages of world football, in club and country, before taking their leave a few months apart.

Share
{# Sitewide native fullscreen interstitial — our own bet-CTA card blown up to a takeover (replaces the SDK overlay). The shared card animations + countdown load once, AFTER the interstitial markup, so the countdown script's first tick sees this card's node too (the in-read card, in
above, already exists). One include covers both surfaces. #}