The legacy of Messi for both club and country is endless as the Argentine is now enjoying some time off after his season with Inter Miami came to an early halt. However, there is big news regarding the Argentina F.A.
Reports suggest that the Albicelestes will be looking to retire the iconic number ’10’ shirt in honour of Messi’s contributions to Argentinian football. According to the Spanish daily Marca quoted a statement from Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia which he gave to a local paper where he said,” “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 honour. It’s the least we can do for him.”
Lionel Messi managed to complete his lifelong dream of being able to win the World Cup with a historic run to secure the trophy. Many doubted whether he could step up and lead the side after his 2014 WC finals loss to Germany and the losses against Chile in the Copa America.
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But since then he has stepped up his game along with the improvement from the manager as Lionel Scaloni took charge of the side where he managed to build a dominant unit with the side having only lost one game in the group stage against Saudi Arabia.
Argentina had made the attempt to retire the ’10’ jersey in honour of the late great Diego Armando Maradona back in 2002 but FIFA’s strict rules on jersey numbers where the teams must use numbers from 1 to 23 means that someone is forced to take up the iconic kit in the future.
Messi managed to silence his biggest critics after having a crazy run of form in the past few years. It started off by winning the Copa America followed by the Finnallissima and then to top it off, the FIFA World Cup in 2022 to put himself above the pantheon of greats.
Messi last featured for Argentina in the World Cup Qualifiers match against Brazil where the side managed to get a 1-0 win thanks to defender Nicolas Otamendi’s strike. The side is currently at the top of the table in the WC Qualifiers for the South American teams.
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He will be looking to recover and heal from his injuries during his time off after Inter Miami’s early elimination after finishing 14th in the Eastern Conference as well.
Messi’s last tournament could be in the coming Copa America with the legend having announced his retirement from the World Cup after the iconic win. He wanted to play more games as a ‘Champion’ after securing the World Cup but it remains to be seen how long will Messi continue for the Albicelestes.
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