Argentina beat Benin 3-0 at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires on Tuesday night. The scoreline is already a footnote. What has stayed online is a split-screen video of two very different ways of saying goodbye to Lionel Messi.

Roccuzzo sat in the family box with the couple’s three children and Messi’s mother Celia Cuccittini, smiling, singing with the crowd and filming the standing ovation on her phone. Fernández, down on the grass as his captain addressed the stadium after the final whistle, was crying uncontrollably, head bowed, with teammates reaching across his shoulders.

The split screen travelled around the world within hours.

The letter Fernández wrote at 15

Fernández, 25, grew up on Messi. A decade ago, when the forward briefly walked away from the national team after the Copa América Centenario final, a 15-year-old Fernández wrote him a letter asking him to come back. On Tuesday he posted a second letter, this one a farewell.

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“When you said you were leaving, I was very sad. I was just a kid, and I used to do the math,” he wrote, recalling the age gap he had worked out between himself and Messi to see whether they would ever share a pitch.

“I came here with the hope of sharing the pitch with my idol, and instead I found someone who, from the very first moment, made me feel like one of the team.”

He signed off: “We are going to miss you a lot, captain.”

In the mixed zone, Fernández managed one sentence.

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“A very emotional day, to be honest, a lot of mixed feelings. I hope Leo enjoyed it, we are going to miss him a lot.”

Roccuzzo’s Instagram, hours later

Roccuzzo saved her tears for Instagram, hours after the final whistle.

“There are nights that explain a whole life. And last night was one of those,” she posted.

“How beautiful it was to see you surrounded by so much love, so many people thanking you and giving back everything you gave them for so many years. You earned that love.”

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Messi, 39, retired from international football on 31 August after Argentina lost the 2026 World Cup final to Spain. Tuesday’s friendly, arranged by the Argentine federation as a goodbye on home soil, was his 208th and final cap. He scored a penalty and set up goals for Nicolás Otamendi and Nicolás Paz.

Fernández’s letter had already looked past the ceremony to the next camp.

“Today I find it hard to imagine the next training camp without you. Going out onto the field and not seeing you up front, wearing number 10.”

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