Despite Lionel Messi's historic status in Argentine football, the Argentine Football Association cannot officially retire the number 10 shirt after the national team captain's retirement, due to FIFA regulations that require teams to assign numbers to all players during official tournaments.
The rules state that player shirt numbers in competitions such as the World Cup and Copa América must be specified, which means the number 10 shirt will remain available for use by the Argentine national team in upcoming tournaments, even after the end of Messi's era.
However, Argentina can honor Messi's legacy in another way, by not assigning the shirt to any player during friendly matches and World Cup qualifiers when Messi is not part of the squad.
The national team has previously left the shirt vacant in some matches where the Argentine star was absent.
Messi is playing his farewell match with the national team against Benin, following his decision to retire from international play.
The 39-year-old concludes an exceptional career with Argentina, during which he became the all-time top scorer and most capped player for the national team, with a tally of 125 goals in 207 matches. He also led his country to win the World Cup and Copa América twice.
Messi has worn the number 10 shirt for Argentina since 2009, having previously worn shirts numbered 18 and 19, succeeding Juan Román Riquelme, making the number closely associated with him over the past years.
This is not the first time Argentina has faced this issue, as the Argentine Football Association attempted to retire the number 10 shirt in honor of Diego Maradona before the 2002 World Cup, but FIFA rejected the request, forcing Argentina to assign the shirt to Ariel Ortega.
As for Messi's successor in wearing the historic number, Lionel Scaloni has not yet made a final decision, confirming that the shirt will not be given to any player until Messi's farewell match, before a new player is chosen to wear it in the future.
Franco Mastantuono had worn the number 10 in one of Argentina's matches during Messi's absence.
