University of Buenos Aires to Award Lionel Messi Honorary Doctorate Before Argentina Farewell

Lionel Messi is preparing to add an unusual honour to a career filled with football trophies, with the University of Buenos Aires set to award the Argentina captain an honorary doctorate.
The university’s Superior Council unanimously approved the decision to grant Messi the title of Doctor Honoris Causa, its highest honorary distinction.
The award will be formally presented on Tuesday, October 6, shortly before Messi takes the field for what is set to be his final appearance in an Argentina shirt.
Argentina will face Benin at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, giving home supporters one final opportunity to see the country's longtime captain represent the national team.
Recognition beyond football statistics
The University of Buenos Aires said its decision was based on more than Messi’s goals, trophies and individual records.
The institution said his career represents values including excellence, perseverance, humility, ethical conduct and commitment to representing Argentina.
University rector Ricardo Gelpi said the honour was intended to recognise Messi not only as an elite athlete but also as a figure who has become deeply connected with Argentina’s culture and national identity.
Vice-Rector Emiliano Yacobitti similarly described the award as something that extends beyond Messi’s football career.
For the university, the honorary doctorate serves as both recognition of his sporting achievements and acknowledgement of the way he has represented Argentina internationally for more than two decades.
A career that changed Argentina’s football history
Messi’s relationship with the national team has gone through periods of extraordinary success and intense disappointment.
He made his senior Argentina debut in 2005 and eventually became the country’s captain, record appearance holder and leading goalscorer.
For many years, however, major international trophies remained elusive.
Argentina lost the 2014 World Cup final to Germany and suffered consecutive Copa América final defeats against Chile in 2015 and 2016.
After the 2016 defeat, Messi briefly announced his retirement from international football before reversing the decision and returning to the national team.
The later years of his international career transformed that story.
In 2021, Argentina defeated Brazil at the Maracanã Stadium to win the Copa América, giving Messi his first major senior international title.
A year later, Argentina beat European champions Italy in the Finalissima at Wembley.
The defining achievement followed at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where Argentina defeated France in the final and Messi finally lifted the World Cup.
Argentina then successfully defended its Copa América title in 2024.
Those results gave Messi and Argentina four major international successes in succession before the 2026 World Cup.
One final World Cup run
Messi entered the 2026 World Cup at the age of 39, with the tournament widely expected to be his final appearance on football's biggest international stage.
Argentina again reached the final but finished as runners-up after losing to Spain.
Following the tournament, Messi confirmed that his international career was coming to an end.
His departure closed an era that began more than two decades earlier and included multiple generations of Argentina players, several coaches and repeated attempts to recreate the success of the country's previous World Cup-winning teams.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni later revealed that he had encouraged Messi to return for one final home appearance so supporters could give him a formal farewell.
That opportunity will now come against Benin on October 6.
The doctorate will come before the farewell
The timing of the university ceremony adds another symbolic element to Messi’s final international match.
He is expected to receive the honorary doctorate before the game at the Monumental, one of Argentina’s most famous football stadiums.
For UBA, the ceremony connects two different kinds of recognition.
Messi will be honoured by one of Argentina’s leading public universities before being celebrated by football supporters at the end of his international career.
The Doctor Honoris Causa is an honorary title.
It does not mean Messi completed an academic doctoral programme. Universities use honorary doctorates to recognise individuals whose achievements or contributions have had significant influence in society, culture, science, public life or other fields.
In Messi’s case, the university is recognising the impact of his sporting career and his role as an international representative of Argentina.
From Rosario to global icon
Messi was born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1987 and moved to Spain as a teenager after joining Barcelona’s academy.
He would go on to become the most successful player in Barcelona’s history, winning domestic and European titles while establishing himself among football’s most celebrated players.
After leaving Barcelona in 2021, he played for Paris Saint-Germain before joining Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.
Despite spending most of his professional club career outside Argentina, his relationship with the national team eventually became one of the defining parts of his legacy.
The transformation was particularly striking because Messi was sometimes criticised earlier in his career for appearing more comfortable with Barcelona than with Argentina.
Winning the Copa América and World Cup substantially changed that relationship.
The celebrations after Argentina’s 2022 World Cup victory demonstrated how closely Messi had become associated with the national team and the country's sporting identity.
UBA places Messi alongside distinguished recipients
Honorary doctorates are among the highest distinctions universities can award to people outside their normal academic degree programmes.
The University of Buenos Aires said its decision followed an international academic tradition of recognising people whose influence extends beyond their immediate profession.
Messi’s recognition is unusual because elite athletes are less commonly associated with university honours than academics, scientists, political figures or cultural personalities.
UBA's decision therefore places particular emphasis on the broader social and cultural influence of his career.
The university said Messi’s conduct, perseverance and commitment to Argentina were central to the decision.
The end of an era
Argentina will eventually have to adjust to a national team without the player who has defined it for most of the past two decades.
Messi has represented his country across five different decades of international competition, from his teenage debut through his final years as captain.
His farewell against Benin will therefore be more than an ordinary friendly.
It will mark the formal end of one of the longest and most successful international careers in football history.
And before the football celebrations begin, Argentina’s most famous player will receive recognition from a very different institution.
After collecting football’s biggest trophies, Messi is now set to leave the Monumental with another title attached to his name — Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Buenos Aires.