We have all the details to why FC Barcelona won’t be able to retire Lionel Messi’s number ‘10’ jersey after leaving the club last week.
One would think that FC Barcelona would be willing to retire Lionel Messi’s number ‘10’ jersey after leaving the club. In football, this doesn’t really happen too often but there are a few exceptions. AC Milan has a specific case, for example. The Maldini family has been donning the number ‘3’ jersey since the days of Cesare. His son, Paolo, wore that same number after him. After a brilliant career that spanned for nearly three decades, he retired and that number as well.
AC Milan will only bring that number back when another Maldini gets to play for the senior squad. SSC Napoli probably has the most famous example of a club retiring a number, but they did it for good over there. Perhaps it sounds familiar to some of you. After an incredible spell at the Southern club in Serie A, Diego Maradona’s number ‘10’ was retired for good at the club and no other player has worn it since. Now that Messi finished his career at the Catalan club, it’s only natural that the fans would want his number to never be worn again. But according to La Liga’s rules, no number from any club in the tournament can be retired.
What are Barcelona’s options?
Retiring the number ‘10’ jersey at FC Barcelona seems like the most obvious decision due to the overwhelming influence Messi had at the club. If this doesn’t happen, we can’t see any other player taking on the number after that. Moreover, anybody who dares wearing it would inherit a massive weight on his shoulders. Barcelona can, however, simply decide to leave the number up for grabs but with no player making the decision to take it.
That’s the only way we can see no other player wearing this jersey for a long time. La Liga’s rules might not change for a long time but this might be one of those rules that are worthy of modification in the near future. There is truly no player who deserves wearing this number after what Leo did over the last 15 years as a Barcelona player. He truly did something even greater than what Maradona did at Napoli. Retiring the number makes all the sense in the world.
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