Lionel Messi closed his Argentina career on Tuesday night in Buenos Aires. He scored a 68th-minute penalty and set up Nicolas Otamendi and Nico Paz for the other two goals in a 3-0 win over Benin, his 126th and final goal in a 208-cap international career.
Alejandro “Papu” Gomez was not there.
The midfielder had been invited by the Argentine Football Association, but turned up on Kuwaiti network Sasha Sasha as a studio pundit for the match instead. The channel billed him alongside commentator Fares Awad: “enjoy the analysis of Messi’s farewell match with Argentina, hosted by Al-Khalasi and featuring world champion Papu Gomez.”
‘Entregá a Antonela’
Doing the rounds on Argentine panel shows and in the sports press on the day of the farewell was a story first reported by the show A La Tarde: that during one of Argentina’s dressing-room celebrations at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Gomez shouted “Entregá a Antonela” (“Hand over Antonela”), a reference to Messi’s wife, Antonela Roccuzzo.
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A panelist on the show described Messi’s reaction in a single line.
“Imagine Messi’s laser eyes. Immediate red card.”
Neither player has ever confirmed the exchange, and no footage of the dressing-room moment has been published. The anecdote has been retold in Argentine media since late 2023 and re-emerged this week around Messi’s goodbye.
Two years out, and still absent
Gomez has not been in the same room as his Argentina teammates since the parades that followed the title in Qatar. In 2023 he was handed a two-year ban for the stimulant terbutaline, which he said he had taken by accident from a cough syrup bought for his young son.
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“I got two years for taking my son’s cough syrup,” he told reporters, later describing football as “dead” to him during the suspension.
The ban ended in October 2025. Gomez returned to competitive football the following month at Serie B side Padova in Italy, where an ankle injury ended his season after a match against Palermo on 21 March 2026. He has since signed in the United Arab Emirates with Forte Virtus, the club that according to Onefootball made travelling to Buenos Aires difficult this week.
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