FIFA blocks Argentina's plan to retire Lionel Messi's No. 10 shirt

Argentina wanted to retire Lionel Messi's iconic No. 10 shirt after his farewell — but FIFA's tournament numbering rules make the ultimate tribute impossible.

The tribute FIFA won't allow

The Argentine Football Association wanted to pay Lionel Messi the ultimate honor: retiring his No. 10 shirt for good after his international farewell. FIFA has blocked it. World football's governing body rules make the permanent retirement of the number impossible, denying Argentina the symbolic gesture they had planned for their greatest player.

Messi, 39, announced on 31 August that he was retiring from international football after more than two decades, 207 caps and 125 goals. He will say goodbye to the Argentine public on 6 October in the friendly against Benin at the Estadio Monumental — and after that night, the AFA hoped, nobody would ever wear his number again.

The rule that stops it

The obstacle is FIFA's squad-numbering regulation for international final tournaments: teams must assign numbers sequentially from 1 to 26. A number cannot simply be withdrawn from circulation, because a 26-man tournament squad must use every number in the range.

It is a bureaucratic rule with romantic consequences. No matter how beloved the player, the numbers 1 through 26 all have to be worn when a major tournament squad is named — which means a permanent retirement of the No. 10 can never survive contact with a World Cup.

Tapia's promise

The AFA's intention was not new. Back in 2024, federation president Claudio Tapia publicly promised that Messi's number would be mothballed the moment he left the international game. "When Messi finishes his international football career, no one else will be allowed to don the number 10 jersey after him," Tapia said at the time. "It will be retired for life as a tribute to him. It's the least we can do in his honour."

Two years on, FIFA's rulebook has caught up with that promise — and the promise has lost.

Argentina have been here before

Painfully for Argentina, this is the second time they have tried to retire this exact shirt. In 2001 the federation announced the retirement of the No. 10 worn by Diego Maradona — only for Ariel Ortega to be forced to wear it at the 2002 World Cup when the same numbering rule intervened.

Other nations have hit the same wall. Liberia retired the No. 14 shirt as a tribute to George Weah, but during the qualification campaign for the 2026 World Cup, Nicholas Andrews still had to wear it to satisfy FIFA's requirement for complete consecutive squad numbering.

So who gets the shirt?

Head coach Lionel Scaloni has confirmed that no decision has been made — and that none will be made until Messi has had his night. "We are not obliged to assign it for the upcoming matches, so we will give it to no one until after Leo's farewell match. We just have not yet decided who," the coach said.

Behind the scenes, though, a successor may already be lined up. ESPN Argentina reporter Federico Bueno claims the decision has effectively been made internally: "If Scaloni extends his contract as Argentina head coach, then Nico Paz will be the new number 10. That has been decided internally," Bueno said.

Paz, the young playmaker, would inherit the most scrutinized shirt in Argentine football — the one worn by Maradona and Messi.

A vacant No. 10 against Benin?

There is a silver lining for the romantics. FIFA's numbering rule applies to tournaments, not friendlies — so nothing stops Argentina from leaving the No. 10 vacant for the Benin farewell itself. Expect an empty shirt on the teamsheet on 6 October: eleven players, but the most famous number of all belonging to no one, for one night belonging to everyone.

After that, the number returns to circulation — by rule, if not by sentiment.

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