Argentine football icon Lionel Messi will certainly go down as one of the greatest players to grace the pitch. While he doesn’t seem to hang up his boots anytime soon, his National team has plans to pay tribute to him once he officially retires from international soccer.
Argentina FA wants to retire Lionel Messi’s No.10 jersey
Argentine Football Association president Claudio Tapia recently said on Saturday that they are planning to retire Messi’s No. 10 jersey, which was previously worn by Diego Maradona. It has come to light that the plans to celebrate Messi’s ongoing legacy come after he won the 2022 World Cup. This also marked their first World Cup title since 1986.
“When Messi retires from the national team, we will not allow anyone else to wear the number 10 after him,” Tapia said in a press conference. “This number 10 will be retired for life in his honor. It’s the least we can do for him.”
Is it possible?
In club football, it is quite common to retire jersey numbers to honor players for their national team accomplishments. However, FIFA rules don’t allow the same for national teams. AFA is likely to face hindrances in retiring Messi’s number since the governing body requires the players to wear all numbers from one to 23 during official competitions.
This is not the first time they’ve wanted to retire the No. 10 jersey. In the 2002 World Cup, they wanted to retire it to honor Maradona. However, they failed.
The plan to retire the No. 10 jersey for Maradona couldn’t happen because of the aforementioned FIFA rules and Ariel Ortega had to wear the No. 10 in a match against Peru. Later, Messi was assigned the No. 10 jersey, who went on to become an all-time great.
As per Reuters, Andre Villas-Boas had previously suggested FIFA to retire the number 10 jersey from the game itself to honor the late-great Diego Maradona after he passed away aged 60 in 2020. Maradona’s former club Napoli withdrew the No. 10 shirt since 2000 as a way to pay homage to the football legend. Villas-Boas had suggested the global soccer body to follow suit but that never came to fruition. It will be quite interesting to see if there is any change of stance from FIFA.
Meanwhile, as the speculation of his retirement looms, Messi is expected to be part of next summer’s Copa America, when the team defends the title in the United States. However, it remains uncertain if the 36-year-old will be a part of the Argentine contingent for the 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
