Lionel Messi is set to bring his glittering Argentina career to an end in a friendly against Benin in Buenos Aires on Tuesday night.
An eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and widely regarded as the greatest ever to play the game, Messi’s international career followed a very different trend to his club exploits.
While he was busy mopping up titles with Barcelona, Messi’s Argentina somewhat struggled to make an impact during his earlier years. However, he eventually got over the hump with the 2021 Copa America title. From there, he has only gathered momentum.
Messi joined up with the Argentina squad recently ahead of his last dance on Tuesday night. So, before that historic and emotional occasion, it’s time to take a look back at the GOAT’s international career in numbers.
Appearances, goals and assists
| Competition | Apps | Goals | Assists | Total G/A | G/A per Game |
| Fifa World Cup | 34 | 21 | 12 | 33 | 0.97 |
| Copa América | 39 | 14 | 18 | 32 | 0.82 |
| World Cup Qualifiers | 72 | 36 | 14 | 50 | 0.69 |
| Finalissima / Conmebol–Uefa | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2.0 |
| International Friendlies | 61 | 54 | 22 | 76 | 1.25 |
| Overall Total | 207 | 125 | 68 | 193 | 0.93 |
Messi has scored an astonishing 125 goals in 207 caps ahead of his final appearance for Argentina. The 39-year-old is second all-time in both categories, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 146 goals in 234 appearances for Portugal.
Together, the two former Clasico rivals are among just three players to ever reach 100 goals in senior men’s international football, while they’re among just four to break the 200-cap mark — Luka Modric on 205 completes the trio of Uefa/Conmebol stars to do so.
Messi is also just the second Argentine to break the 50-goal mark, eclipsing his nation’s second-highest goalscorer, Gabriel Batistuta, who scored 56 goals in 78 caps. However, the Fiorentina man scored at a rate of 0.72 goals per cap, whereas Messi clocks 0.6.
During his career, Messi has registered 11 hat-tricks for Argentina. His most recent was against Algeria in the 2026 World Cup group stage — 14 years on from his first in a friendly against Switzerland — and saw him move ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Vivian Woodward as the record-holder in men’s international football. In men’s and women’s international football combined, the United States‘ Alex Morgan is the only player with more hat-tricks on 12, so Messi has a chance to equal the record against Benin.
71 of Messi’s 125 international goals have come in competitive tournament play at a rate of 56.8% and 0.49 goals per competitive cap.
Messi is the World Cup’s second-highest goalscorer of all time behind Kylian Mbappe (22), while only four players have scored more Copa America goals.
Lionel Messi’s 2026 Fifa World Cup shot map
Bolivia have felt Messi’s wrath the most, with 11 goals conceded to the Argentine, while Ecuador and Venezuela are next on seven. Messi scored against Argentina’s great rivals, Brazil, five times, while he breached France and Croatia three times and Spain twice.
Messi’s most productive year in terms of goalscoring was 2022, when he scored 18 goals in 14 caps to help Argentina lift their third World Cup.
Of course, Messi has also been a creative force. He’s already the record-holder for all-time assists in football as a whole with 424, but that record extends to international football, where his 68 assists (per Transfermarkt) leave him well clear of the likes of Landon Donovan (61) and Neymar (59).
Messi’s 18 Copa America assists and 12 World Cup assists are both tournament records.
International titles
| Title | Year(s) Won | Opponent in Final | Final Score |
| Copa América | 2021 | Brazil 🇧🇷 | 1–0 |
| CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions (Finalissima) | 2022 | Italy 🇮🇹 | 3–0 |
| FIFA World Cup | 2022 | France 🇫🇷 | 3–3 (4–2 p) |
| Copa América | 2024 | Colombia 🇨🇴 | 1–0 (aet) |
As mentioned, it took until 2021 for Messi to finally win a senior international title, having lost in the 2014 World Cup final and the 2007, 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals.
That 2021 victory opened the floodgates. Argentina went on to defeat Italy 3-0 in the 2022 Finalissima, beat France on penalties later that year to secure Messi’s long-awaited World Cup, and retain their Copa America title with a 1-0 win over Colombia in the 2024 final.
No player has won more senior international titles for Argentina than Messi (4), who was also part of the sides that beat Nigeria in the 2005 U20 World Cup final and the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal match.
In total, Messi has played in nine major senior finals, winning four and losing five. However, as mentioned, four of those defeats came in his first four finals, while the most recent was the 1-0 loss to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final.
Discipline
| Competition | Apps | Yellow Cards | Red Cards | Cards per Match |
| World Cup | 34 | 2 | 0 | 0.06 |
| Copa América | 39 | 3 | 1 | 0.10 |
| World Cup Qualifiers | 72 | 1 | 0 | 0.01 |
| Finalissima | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| International Friendlies | 61 | 3 | 1 | 0.07 |
| Overall Total | 207 | 9 | 2 | 0.05 |
Messi has never been known as a dirty player, and his disciplinary record at international level is almost flawless.
To date, he’s received just nine yellow cards in 207 caps, with only six in competitive matches.
He’s also received just two red cards, but remarkably, the first came in his debut against Hungary in August 2005, with Messi sent off less than two minutes after coming on. That sending-off caused him to miss Argentina’s 3-2 friendly defeat to England in Geneva in November of that year, meaning his only career appearance against the Three Lions was in the recent World Cup semi-final.
Messi’s only other international red card was given for an altercation with Gary Medel in Argentina’s hot-tempered win over Chile in the 2019 Copa America third-place playoff.