BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Expect lots of tears when Lionel Messi plays a farewell game for Argentina on Tuesday.
The friendly against Benin in Buenos Aires has been dubbed “The Night That No One Wants to End” as Messi plays for his country one last time.
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Argentina's Lionel Messi, center, trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, with teammate Rodrigo De Paul, right, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi, center, trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, with teammate Rodrigo De Paul, right, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
The 39-year-old soccer icon announced his international retirement in the weeks following the World Cup final loss to Spain, saying, “The time has come.”
The Argentine Football Association tempted him to make one last appearance for “the farewell he deserves” and thousands of fans are expected to show their appreciation at Estadio Monumental.
AFA said the match will “transcend sports” and be “full of emotion.”
Messi posted on social media pictures of him arriving to join the national team for the last time and his final training sessions.
“Special moments I know I will miss,” he wrote.
Messi just fell short of winning back-to-back World Cups when defending champion Argentina was beaten by Spain 1-0 in the final in July in New Jersey.
He achieved his ultimate ambition of leading his country to victory four years earlier in Qatar — emulating fellow Argentine great Diego Maradona.
Messi has played 207 games for Argentina and finishes as its all-time leading scorer with 125 goals, 21 of them in World Cups. He appeared in a record-tying six World Cups along with his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
He briefly retired from Argentina duty in 2016 then enjoyed his most successful period with the national team, winning Copa Américas in 2021 and ’24, as well as the '22 World Cup.
He's continuing at club level with Inter Miami, and recently won the Campeones Cup, his fourth trophy with the team.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
Argentina's Lionel Messi trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi, center, trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, with teammate Rodrigo De Paul, right, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Lionel Messi trains for his final game with the national team, an international friendly soccer match against Benin, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for his efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos, tiny cosmic particles that scientists believe offer clues to how the universe evolved.
“It was a great surprise and I obviously didn’t expect it,” Halzen said, speaking to the committee by phone from Italy, in a call broadcast at the news conference to announce the winner.
Halzen said it was predicted before that he would win the Nobel Prize but the announcement still made him feel “strange.”
“I’m working on a proposal and I hope winning this will help getting it approved,” he said to chuckles.
The Nobel Committee for Physics also cited Halzen’s work at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica, where he began researching the capture of neutrinos in the 1980s.
“Francis Halzen has led an international team of researchers and engineers who have provided us with a fantastic instrument. His tenacity and scientific vision has paved the way for a new kind of astronomy,” Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in a news release.
Born in Belgium, the 82-year-old scientist is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the U.S, the lead institution at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Efforts by The Associated Press to reach him were not immediately successful.
Neutrinos are tiny cosmic particles with a mind-bogglingly small mass. Yet they are everywhere: they spew from stars like the sun and trillions zip through our bodies every second.
Scientists can’t glimpse the mysterious ghost particles zooming around on their own. Instead, they measure what happens when the tiny particles collide with other bits of matter, producing flashes of light or charged particles.
Halzen studied a rare gang of neutrinos that scientists consider messengers from the cosmos, offering clues to how the universe evolved.
A representative from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory did not immediately return a request for comment. The University of Wisconsin–Madison did not immediately have a comment when reached by the AP.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award in Stockholm.
The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organization.
Last year, three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for research on the strange behavior of subatomic particles called quantum tunneling that enabled the ultrasensitive measurements achieved by MRI machines and laid the groundwork for better cellphones and faster computers.
The announcements of this year's prizes began Monday with the Nobel Prize in medicine being awarded to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works.
This week's awards continue Wednesday with the chemistry prize and literature on Thursday. After Friday’s peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday.
The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organization.
Dazio reported from Berlin and Ramakrishnan reported from New York. Alexa St. John in Detroit contributed to this report.
AP Nobel Prizes: https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes
A portrait of Francis Halzen is shown on the screen during the announce of the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 6, 2026. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)
A portrait of Francis Halzen is shown on the screen as Eva Olsson, Ellen Moons, and Mark Pearce announce as the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 6, 2026. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)
FILE - A Nobel diploma and medal are displayed, Dec. 8, 2020, during a ceremony in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - A bust of Alfred Nobel on display following a press conference to announce the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 3, 2022. (Henrik Montgomery/TT News Agency via AP, File)
