DBasia.news – Argentina national team temporary coach, Lionel Scaloni, mentioned the 10 jersey number of his team won’t be used until Lionel Messi retires.
Scaloni’s statement is related to Messi’s decision to take a rest after Argentina’s failure in the 2018 World Cup. At that time, Messi as the team captain just brought his team until the round of 16 in his fourth World Cup.
Until now, Messi hasn’t given any confirmation when he will return to wear the Argentina blue-white jersey. “In this time, the 10 shirt belongs to Messi and it will stay this way until he decides if he will continue with us or not,” Scaloni said quoted by Sportskeeda.
“We aren’t closed to that chance so I chose to keep this number for him. In the future we will see, but if you look at the players who played the World Cup you will see they kept their numbers, and we wait for the future to see what happens, but so far no one is using the 10 because it is exclusive for him and that is my decision. There is nothing else about this,” Scaloni added.
This is the second decision of Messi after the first in 2016. The big pressure from Argentina’s public toward Messi to bring the champion title might be the reason behind his retirement.