A special shirt for Messi’s final appearance for Argentina The national flag, gold details and his personal logo come together to bid farewell to Argentina’s No. 10

A special shirt for an occasion that the word “special” barely begins to describe: Lionel Messi’s final match for Argentina. On October 6, for the friendly against Benin at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires, the Selección will wear a farewell kit to bid goodbye to its number 10. Messi teased it a few days ago in a video accompanied by just a few words—“Último partido, una camiseta para toda la vida” (“One last match, a shirt for a lifetime”)—and the first official images show him surrounded by supporters, underlining the bond he has built with the Argentine public over the decades.

The shirt created by adidas abandons Argentina’s traditional vertical stripes in favour of a wide white band across a light-blue base. The front and back feature a reinterpretation of the Sol de Mayo, the sun depicted on the Argentine flag, while gold details run through the federation crest, numbers and trims. On the chest is the most distinctive choice of all: Messi’s personal logo, replacing the adidas logo for this special occasion.

The kit features CLIMACOOL+ technology and is the centrepiece of a collection that also includes pre-match apparel, shorts, socks and lifestyle pieces. For some observers, the design recalled another Argentine “flag shirt”: the one created by Óscar Tubío for the 1990 World Cup, with the Sol de Mayo at its centre. It was a favourite of Diego Maradona, who wore it during a charity match in 1994, even though the Selección never used it in an official fixture.

The shirt created for Messi’s final match places him among the select group of champions whose farewell was also marked by a special kit. In 2017, for example, Roma played Francesco Totti’s final match with a Totti10 logo on the sleeve; in 2018, Juventus bid farewell to Gianluigi Buffon with a #UN1CO patch for the match against Verona; that same year, Barcelona created a commemorative shirt for Andrés Iniesta, transforming his number 8 into the infinity symbol.