Nico Paz: Tipped to Inherit Messi's Argentina No. 10

Nico Paz curled in a left-footed beauty off a Messi assist to seal Argentina's 3-0 farewell win over Benin. With FIFA keeping the No. 10 in circulation, the 22-year-old Como attacker is now tipped to inherit Messi's shirt.

A goal straight out of the No. 10 playbook

With an hour gone at a sold-out Monumental, Lionel Messi played a short pass into space and a 22-year-old in an Argentina shirt did the rest. Nico Paz took a touch and curled a left-footed finish into the far corner — the kind of goal Messi himself has scored a hundred times. Argentina led 2-0, and the farewell night had its passing-of-the-torch moment.

The Como attacker had been on the pitch barely a minute when he struck. Fittingly, the assist came from the man whose shirt he may one day inherit — and the left-footed curler was one his hero would have been proud of.

One minute on, one goal in

The speed of the impact said everything. Paz had barely entered the match when Messi found him with a short pass, and the finish was instant: one touch, then a left-footed curler tucked into the far corner. Argentine coverage of the night noted that he had been on the pitch barely a minute before doubling the lead.

It was the second of Messi's two assists on the night — the first had picked out Nicolas Otamendi for the opener from a corner in the 48th minute — and it made the farewell statistically complete: one goal and two assists in the final appearance, a man-of-the-match performance to end all man-of-the-match performances.

For Paz, the timing could hardly have been better. To score your first great moment in an Argentina shirt on the night the country's greatest ever player says goodbye is the kind of story football rarely scripts this neatly.

The heir apparent

Paz did not arrive at the farewell by accident. Reports have long tipped him as the leading candidate to inherit Messi's No. 10 shirt, and the farewell performance only sharpened the argument. Reuters described him as one of the players seen as a potential successor for Argentina's number, while coverage of the night noted that the idea is for Paz to become the next No. 10 — big shoes to fill, but a start made in the best possible way.

At 22, the Como forward represents exactly what Argentina's post-Messi era needs: a young, creative, left-footed attacker already earning his place in a senior side that is about to be rebuilt.

The shirt question: FIFA keeps the 10 alive

Whoever wears it next, the No. 10 will remain in circulation. FIFA has blocked Argentina from retiring Messi's shirt number, so the most famous number in the country's football history stays available rather than being frozen in honour of its greatest wearer.

That decision has only intensified the debate over the succession. Paz is the name most often mentioned, and his goal against Benin — set up by Messi himself — felt like a coronation in miniature.

Otamendi says goodbye too

Paz was not the only story of endings and beginnings on the night. Nicolas Otamendi, who nodded in Argentina's opener from Messi's corner in the 48th minute, was also playing his final international match.

Otamendi shared 17 years in the national team with Messi, including four World Cups, and their link-up for the opening goal — the veteran centre-back running straight to his old friend — was one of the night's most emotional images. When he was substituted, the Monumental rose for him too.

The new generation gets its minutes

Scaloni used the farewell to show the future. Giovani Lo Celso, a veteran of the 2022 run who earned his World Cup chance this summer after missing Qatar, came on alongside teenagers Franco Mastantuono and Leonel Flores — 19-year-old faces who will be central to what comes next for the Albiceleste.

Even the tributes carried a view to the future: goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez took the field with the Leo Messi "M" logo cut into his hair. The torch is not so much being passed as being shared — and on the evidence of one left-footed curler, Paz is ready to carry it.

Scaloni's rebuild needs a face

The farewell was also the launch of a new era, and Scaloni knows it. "We will now build with new talents, new young players, we will look at new ways," the coach said after the match, adding that what Messi transmits is "impossible to replace".

Replacing the irreplaceable will fall to the generation that shared the pitch on Tuesday. Paz is the natural headline act, but Scaloni's rebuild will also lean on the teenagers who made their cameos — Mastantuono and Flores — as Argentina builds toward its next major tournaments with a new-look side.

For now, the succession plan has a front-runner, and he scored on the night it mattered most.

The weight of the famous shirt

Argentina's No. 10 is not just a number. It is the shirt Messi wore for 208 caps and 126 goals — all national records — and the same shirt Diego Maradona made immortal. Messi is widely considered the greatest Argentine of all, with only Maradona spoken of in the same class, and whoever takes the number inherits a century of expectation.

FIFA's decision to keep it in circulation rather than retiring it means the story moves on rather than freezing in place. Reports already describe the Como attacker as the front-runner to succeed Messi as his country's No. 10, and his curled finish on the farewell night — assisted by Messi, celebrated by 85,000 people — was the most convincing audition imaginable.

The final whistle brought embraces from teammates, opponents and the referee, then a drone show over the Monumental. When the sky cleared, one image lingered: the old No. 10 walking off, and the possible new one walking on.

Questions people ask

All of our farewell coverage is on Argentina vs Benin.