Benin lament being unable to take a photo with Messi

“They wouldn’t even let us take a photo”: Benin’s team protested over the circumstances surrounding Messi’s farewell with Argentina. For Gernot Rohr, the evening at the Monumental left his players with mixed feelings after they faced the Albiceleste in a friendly.

The coach told RMC that his players had tried to approach the Argentinians after the match to exchange shirts and take photos with Messi. Some had even prepared their shirts for that purpose. “We wanted to exchange shirts, but we didn’t get a single one. They gave us nothing, not even a photo with Messi,” Rohr lamented. He described tight restrictions after the match: “They wouldn’t even let us into the tunnel. Security was stopping everyone from getting through.”

Before the match, Tijani, a Benin player and an admirer of Messi, had given him a red rose accompanied by an Amazonian woman. Rohr said his player had hoped the gesture would mark the occasion. Despite their efforts, the players could not get the keepsake they wanted.

The frustration followed complaints made a few days before the match about the hotel conditions and the inability to train. Rohr nevertheless praised Lionel Scaloni: he had Messi sign a shirt that the coach had owned since 2018, after the player gave it to him during the World Cup in Russia, when Rohr was managing Nigeria.

The coach also said he had enjoyed being present for the farewell of a legend. In his view, the result mattered less than the international experience offered to the young players and what they could learn from it.