Argentina: Messi’s final match, Benin makes revelations

Days after Lionel Messi’s farewell friendly for Argentina against Benin (3-0), another member of the Cheetahs’ delegation has broken his silence.

On Tuesday night into Wednesday last week, the football world witnessed Lionel Messi’s farewell to the Argentina national team during a friendly against Benin (3-0). Hours after the match, Cheetahs head coach Gernot Rohr publicly criticised the attitude of the Argentinians. “The only downside is that the Argentinians gave us nothing. Not a photo with Messi, not a shirt. They did not even let us into the corridor, let alone the dressing room; security refused everyone entry. Some players came to exchange shirts, and we knew it was going to be difficult. We tried everything, but we got nothing. We offered a bouquet of flowers in the colours of Benin—yellow, red and green—but it did not work,” he told RMC.

Tunde Adelakun recounts the emotions experienced

On Monday, Gernot Rohr’s assistant Tunde Adelakun spoke out in a lengthy message published by The African Football Club. He described the emotions experienced by the entire team and its staff.

“When, just a few days before the start of the training camp ahead of the first two group matches in the 2027 AFCON qualifiers, we learned that we would be travelling to Buenos Aires to play a friendly against Argentina as a final tribute to the great Lionel Messi, we (the staff, ed.) were overcome by a quiet and measured joy. Quiet and measured because, as members of the technical staff, we had to set an example and not allow emotions that could have distracted us from the two important matches awaiting us to show: a tricky away game against Burkina Faso, the group favourites, followed by a ‘home’ match against Mauritania in Abidjan,” he revealed.

After the excitement came impatience brought on by a lengthy journey for the Cheetahs: “Thirteen long hours from Paris to Buenos Aires, not to mention the first six hours from Abidjan to Paris and the layover. An entire day of travel, split into three groups, to play this match. But for many of us, myself included, it was well worth it.”

The attitude of the Argentinians criticised

While Gernot Rohr testified to Lionel Messi’s inaccessibility, Tunde Adelakun went a step further by also denouncing the attitude of the Argentinians. “As a team, the Benin Cheetahs came to pay tribute to Messi. The team travelled in extremely difficult conditions to offer this man a farewell worthy of him. What struck me was the very obvious and blatant refusal of the Argentine team to have anything to do with my team after the match. The handshakes at the end of the game were rushed and impersonal. And every attempt by our players to approach the man they had come to celebrate was rebuffed rather hostilely by the security officers present. It was clear that collectively they did not want to be in the same place as my Benin team. It was rather disturbing. Some of our players, who are quite young and grew up idolising Lionel Messi, wanted to catch a glimpse of him, take photos and shake his hand. That was not possible. When they formed a guard of honour for him, someone suggested that our team line up to applaud him as he passed. Judging by the speed with which the security officers dispersed the small group of players that had formed, one might have thought my boys were rioters in the midst of a riot,” he wrote.

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He added: “As we were debating whether the security officers had gone too far in enforcing the crowd-control instructions, the final blow came. Lionel Messi was taking a lap of honour around the pitch to the applause of the crowd. He went all the way around the pitch with his teammates, slowly, savouring the applause. Towards the end of the lap, some of my players lined up along what was supposed to be his natural route to complete the lap of honour. He was leading. My boys were there. They simply wanted him to walk towards them so they could applaud him and show him their admiration. At the very last moment, Leo made an unexpected detour and, deliberately avoiding the group of Beninese players that had formed, headed towards the centre of the pitch. It was another low blow from a man revered by many and who, in the minds of many young Africans, could do no wrong. This raised a question: if it had been England or Spain that had come to play this farewell match against Argentina to say goodbye to Messi, would they have been treated in the same way as Benin?”

Joshua SOSSOU

Editorfr, en, ar

As a sports fan, and particularly a football fan, I've been putting my writing talent to good use for a number of years now to promote African talent and the continent's football in general. On Foot Africa, enjoy reading each of my lines.

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