Argentina Wants to Retire Messi’s Number 10, But There’s a Big Problem

Claudio Tapia, the president of the AFA, ensures that Argentina has a plan: no one else will wear the number 10 jersey after Messi’s retirement.

Is Messi’s number 10 permanently retired by Argentina? It’s in the federation’s plans. « When Messi retires from the national team, we will not allow anyone else to wear the number 10 after him. This number ’10’ will be retired for life in his honor. It’s the least we can do for him, » said the president of the Argentine Football Federation, Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia, to an Argentine newspaper cited by Marca.

While this practice exists in clubs, it has never happened in national teams. Argentina had previously attempted this with Maradona’s number 10, but FIFA had rejected the proposal. If it had been approved, Messi would never have worn the number 10 for the national team.

However, there’s a size problem for Argentina. In FIFA tournaments, only numbers 1 to 23 are allowed. This means that theoretically, Argentina could only have a maximum of 22 players in the World Cup if they didn’t assign the number 10 to a player.