Five days after Lionel Messi walked away from Argentina's national team, the country still cannot agree on how to say goodbye to the number he wore, not just the man himself. A widely read opinion piece from Argentine sports journalist Ezequiel Fernández Moores argues the No. 10 shirt should keep circulating rather than get frozen in his honor, reigniting a fight that first flared up when Diego Maradona hung up his boots a quarter-century ago.
The stakes reach well past Buenos Aires. In Latin American soccer culture, the No. 10 is not just a number on a jersey — it's handed down to a team's most gifted playmaker and treated almost like a family heirloom. Whatever Argentina decides will likely shape how other soccer nations think about numbering tributes to their own departed legends.
