On what will be his 208th appearance, the country's most-capped player and record goal scorer will bid an emotional farewell in a friendly against Benin at the Monumental in Buenos Aires. Arguably Argentina's greatest ever player - only Diego Maradona comes close - announced his retirement from the national team on 31 August, six weeks after the World Cup final defeat by Spain, saying he had nothing more to give. Coach Lionel Scaloni insists that if Messi ever wants to carry on, he can, and there is no embarrassment in changing one's mind.
But that chapter seems closed. His club career though goes on. The contract with Inter Miami runs to the end of the 2028 season, but it is reviewed year by year, and nobody close to him expects him to walk away a day before he has to.
In fact, it is quite likely he will renew it if he feels, mentally and physically, up for it. Ask the people around him what comes after that and they smile, because Messi has never really planned beyond his next game. Even so, the shape of what lies ahead is already in front of us.
He will stay inside football, because he would struggle to live without it, but his other business interests stretch far outside the game. Messi retires from Argentina duty with 'nothing left to give' How Messi's decade of dominance almost never happened Messi used to like the idea of being a sporting director or an adviser to the president, close to the decisions without all the travelling and the phone calls. And asked recently whether he would rather be a coach or an owner, Messi chose owner.
A coach lives and dies by every Saturday and has to worry about far too many things for Messi's liking. An owner shapes the direction of a club from a little further back. Having said that, he would be an owner who does not stop at approving the appointment of a manager and stepping away.
He would want to be involved in everything. The groundwork is being laid in Spain. UE Cornella, on the edge of Barcelona and in the fifth tier, is the nursery where young players grow.
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