Reports indicate that Argentina will officially retire Lionel Messi’s No.10 shirt upon retiring his boots.
Once Messi leaves his National team career behind him, we will no longer permit anyone else to wear his number “10”, in his honor and that number will be permanently retired as reported by Marca citing Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia as president of Argentina Football Federation as saying: “Unfortunately there’s little we can do”.
Noteworthy is the Argentinian FA’s attempt at retiring Diego Maradona’s iconic number 10 jersey – worn for so many seasons by Maradona himself – prior to retiring it for good.
FIFA rules prohibiting teams from wearing numbers 1-23 prevented this from occurring; Ariel Ortega of Argentina became the last official player to wear the iconic number 10 jersey during a World Cup game when playing against Peru.
Argentina retires Messi’s No. 10
Lionel Messi will have one last honor bestowed upon them after leading Argentina to World Cup victory with Qatar win, retiring his number.
According to AFA President Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, when Claudio hangs up his boots for Argentina as part of their national team – once worn by Diego Maradona himself – his number 10 will be retired as his former number.
After Messi retires from National team duty, no other player will wear number 10. As AFA President Tapia stated in an Argentinean newspaper: ‘it is only right and fitting that we do so to honour his memory’.
Claudio Tapia, AFA President, announced that Argentina would retire Messi’s number 10 jersey officially following their World Cup victory in Qatar – this gesture paying homage to Messi’s 180 games, 106 goals scored over his career span and major achievements like winning Copa America 2021 and then World Cup 2022 as well. Messi’s feats place him among greats such as Maradona and Pele.