Scaloni on his future, Messi's shirt and the next captain

On 29 September 2026, before the trip to Córdoba, Lionel Scaloni answered the three questions that sit on top of this window. He wants to stay as Argentina coach, and the talks with Claudio Tapia have started. Nothing is signed. The number 10 stays unused until Lionel Messi's match against Benin. Cristian Romero is the first captain once Messi and Nicolás Otamendi are not on the pitch, with Emiliano Martínez second and Lautaro Martínez third. The Benin farewell is still Tuesday 6 October at 20:00 at the Más Monumental, 23:00 UTC, and Messi is still the captain of that night.

The contract, which is a conversation and not a signature

Scaloni's deal ends on 31 December 2026. That date has been the open question since the World Cup final. On Tuesday he said the willingness is there on both sides, and that the talking has only just started. He and Tapia had not sat down properly after the tournament. They have now. He said they would try to talk again in the coming days, around these matches, and that when there is something to announce they will announce it.

He also said the desire to continue is his. A request from Messi would not be what decides it. What decided him to even have the conversation, he said, was looking at what the team still has in front of it after the final. If he had not seen that, there would have been nothing to negotiate. The sporting question came first. The money is part of a contract. It is not the sentence he led with.

Read that as a door, not a renewal. "We have started talking" is not "he has signed until 2030." A coach can want to stay, a president can want him to stay, and the paper can still be blank on 30 September. Until a length, a date and a signature are public, the job he holds is the one that expires at the end of the year. This page will not dress a press-conference mood up as a contract.

The number 10, which waits for one match

The shirt question is the one people try to answer with a name. Scaloni did not give them one. These friendlies do not force a number. Until Messi's match, nobody else wears the 10. After that match, they will see. The idea is that one player keeps it, because of what the shirt is, and they have not chosen who. He also said it is not a number that stays glued to one man for the whole qualifying cycle. The next qualifier does not, by itself, appoint the next 10.

That leaves the Benin night as the last time the digit is his by announcement, and the games before it as games with a hole where the 10 would have been. Bolivia on Wednesday and Burkina Faso on Saturday are inside that hole. The detail of the shirt he has shown for the farewell, gold digits and the sun on the back, sits on the number 10 page. The news from this press conference is the rule, not the fabric: unused until 6 October, undecided after it.

The armband, which is an order and not a coronation

The captaincy is the part he did settle. Romero was already third, behind Messi and Otamendi. With both of those two out of the first matches, Romero becomes first. Emiliano Martínez is second. Lautaro Martínez is third. Scaloni said that is how it will be for these matches. He also said Romero, besides being a very good player, had to accept the responsibility and did. The next part is showing what it is to wear the armband. He called him willing, and said that willingness is something that still has to be shaped. He said they are not looking for a strongman. They are looking for people who are a positive presence.

Romero plays for Atlético Madrid. Emiliano Martínez is at Chelsea. Lautaro Martínez is at Inter. All three have worn an armband at club level. De Paul was named as another player who can carry it when he is there. He is not in the Bolivia or Burkina Faso matches. He is in the group for Benin only, the same as Messi. So the order you will see on Wednesday in Córdoba, if the teamsheet follows what the coach said, is Romero first. That is an armband for a match Messi is not in. It is not Romero taking the farewell away from the man the night was built for.

On 6 October the captain is Messi. Otamendi is in that match too, for a goodbye of his own, and he has been the second armband for years. The new order is what applies when those two are absent, and what applies after the farewell is over. Writing "Romero captains the Benin game" would flatten a sentence Scaloni was careful with. The first match of the new order is Bolivia. The last match of the old one is Benin.

What he did not settle

He did not read out the Bolivia eleven. He said the team is close, and that the players will be told after the last training, not in the press conference. Lautaro and Julián Álvarez were the forward pairing he pointed toward for that game. A pairing in an answer is still not a sheet. Treat Wednesday's team as expected until the list exists.

He did not move Messi's arrival. The plan from the same set of answers still stands: in principle Sunday 4 October, after Burkina Faso, unless Messi chooses to come earlier. He did not pick the next wearer of the 10. He did not sign his own contract. He did not put Leandro Paredes in the squad. The ban still keeps Paredes out, whatever was said about the door being open.

The squad page is where the names and the clubs sit. This page is the press conference. Three answers, three different levels of certainty. The captain order is the firm one. The shirt rule is firm until 6 October and blank after it. The contract is a conversation with a willing man on each side of the table, and an empty signature line.

Questions people ask

Conclusion

Lionel Scaloni wants to stay, and he has started talking to Claudio Tapia. The contract still ends on 31 December 2026, because nothing new has been signed. The number 10 is Messi's against Benin and nobody else's before that. Cristian Romero is first captain when Messi and Otamendi are not playing, with Emiliano Martínez and Lautaro Martínez behind him. On 6 October the armband is still Messi's.