Lionel Messi’s No. 10 is one of the most famous shirt numbers in football, but Argentina can’t retire it permanently after his international career.
The Argentine Football Association has wanted to honour Messi by taking the number out of circulation. But FIFA’s rules for major international tournaments are the problem.
For competitions like the World Cup, FIFA requires teams to assign squad numbers from 1 to 26 when they have a 26-player squad. That means Argentina cannot simply leave No. 10 empty while giving the other players the remaining numbers. FIFA’s own 2026 World Cup regulations confirm that numbers 1 through 26 are allocated to each team’s players, and No. 1 is reserved for a goalkeeper.
So Argentina cannot say that nobody should ever wear Messi’s shirt again; the number would still have to be assigned to a player when the next applicable tournament comes around.
Argentina can keep the number unused in friendly matches, as a way to honour Messi’s legacy. Coach Lionel Scaloni has also said that nobody would wear the No. 10 before Messi’s farewell match against Benin on October 6.
Argentina has actually been through this before.
The country tried to retire Diego Maradona’s No. 10 before the 2002 World Cup. FIFA rejected the move because the number had to remain part of Argentina’s tournament squad numbering, and Argentina eventually gave the shirt to Ariel Ortega.
Now, more than two decades later, Argentina faces the same problem with Messi.
The No. 10 can be protected as a tribute to Messi during certain matches, but when Argentina enters a major FIFA tournament, the number cannot simply be removed from the squad list.
And that means the shirt worn by Maradona and then Messi will eventually have another name on the back.
