Lionel Messi has completed football and can bid Argentina farewell with pride

Not for the first time, Lionel Messi is returning to the Argentina national team. This occasion, however, will be accompanied by a sense of completion and celebration rather than obligation, as the country bids farewell to probably the greatest footballer ever.

Messi will wear the Argentina shirt one last time this week for a friendly in Buenos Aires against Benin (who else?!) after he wasinvited back for a celebratory runoutfollowinghis decision to retire from international footballafter the World Cup final. In 2016, having suffered heartbreak in a major international final for the third year in a row,Messi was seemingly done.

"This is tough and a difficult time," he said after theCopa América Centenario final defeat to Chile. "The end has come for me and our team.

It has been four finals - it just wasn't for me unfortunately. I looked for it and wanted it so badly, but it didn't happen.

This is best for everyone - for me and for a lot of people that wish this. The team has ended for me, a decision made.

I tried many times and I leave without being able to obtain it." Fortunately, about six weeks later after a national campaign urging him to change his mind, Messi confirmed he wasn't quitting. Another 10 years with the national team would follow, and what a time it proved to be.

Having finally won theWorld Cup- as well as earning more caps (208 after Tuesday's game) and scoring more goals (125) for Argentina than anyone - Messi no longer has anything to prove to anyone. Given what Argentina have achieved in the last five years, the 16 barren years of Messi's international career feel like something from an alternate reality.

They lost Copa América finals in 2007, 2015 and 2016, as well asthe World Cup final to Germany in 2014. And it wasn't as if there was a huge amount of promise for Argentina immediately following Messi's 2016 U-turn.

Argentina's participation at the 2018 World Cup was a debacle.