I’ve written this before the game, while i usually do tend to go for long reviews of games, i think this is the one time I’ll forget about the game completely. End of the day, whatever the result, it is a goodbye to the greatest footballer of all time, luckily only for the national team. So i will try to keep this mostly about the national team. August 17 2005 he made his debut for the national team. Of course if we look back from now he obviously has had a successful national team career, with two Copa America’s and a World Cup, including two more World Cup final appearances too. But just over 10 years ago he decided to retire on the spot after losing to Chile in the Copa America final, where he missed a penalty in the shootout too. I remember that day very well to be honest, it felt truly insane that he decided to quit. But, to the relief of i hope every football fan, he reversed that decision. Since then Argentina has become one of the most dominant teams despite not having the quality in every position, but just one brilliant little man is enough. Fact is that this goes beyond any goat debate that ever existed, it goes beyond any hate or love for players, and if you like it or not the greatest player to have walked this earth ends his national team career today. It might not be his toughest fixture against Benin, but it’s special regardless. I’m not the type of person usually to be watching a game for just one player, and when i do it was usually for a classic 10 like Isco, James, or Özil. Or Godts of course, can’t leave that beautiful man out of this. But Messi absolutely is one of those players, he’s the player you open a bottle of wine or whiskey for and just sit back and enjoy. You’ll be seeing things that are so unbelievably incredible which he makes look easy. Football is called the beautiful game, and Messi is why.