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FURORE OVER ARGENTINA TEMPORARY RETIREMENT OF JERSEY NUMBER 10 FOR MESSI

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Argentina players are in disagreement with the decision of the Argentine FA to temporarily retire the iconic shirt number 10 in their next couple of friendly matches.

The shirt is what the mercurial Lionel Messi wears in the team. It is not certain yet if the globally acclaimed superstar has retired from the team.

He had retired before being persuaded to return and he almost single handedly qualified the team for the World Cup. He was quoted as saying he would retire from the team after the World Cup.

Sadly for the player who was part of the U-20 World Cup winning side in 2005 and the Olympic Games gold medal three years later, he is yet to win any title with the national team.

Now, Argentina national team won’t allow any other player to wear the iconic No.10shirt during the upcoming friendlies against Guatemala and Colombia because of Leo Messi’s surprising decision to put his international career on a pause.

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Argentina’s initiative isn’t supported by their own players, by the way. Messi’s teammate Romero, for example, is left somewhat bemused with his national team’s weird decision.

The Manchester United goalkeeper believes the No.10 kit could be worn by any other player, not only Leo Messi.

He told TyC Sports, as quoted by Goal: The No.10 jersey has always been used. I don’t understand why it’s not being used now. I haven’t asked. I haven’t inquired. I had no idea that it wasn’t going to be used. In all the friendlies, it has always been available. Probably, for some reason, it will not be used now. I just found out.’

 

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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