Why Lionel Messi's No. 10 Shirt Wasn't Retired

Although many called for Barcelona to retire Lionel Messi's former No. 10 jersey, it was officially handed to African-born teenager Ansu Fati this week. Here is why the famous number was not surrendered for good.  

Click through the gallery above to see the last five Barcelona players to wear Barca's No. 10 shirt!

In the days that followed Messi's shock exit from the Catalan club last month, a number of discussions seemed to centre around which player would inherit the legendary Argentine's vacant No. 10 shirt.

With that number on his back, Messi scored hundreds of goals for Barcelona, stacked his trophy cabinet with football's greatest team titles, and won the Ballon d'Or a world-record six times.

Reports in Spain suggested that experienced veterans such as Philippe Coutinho and Sergio Aguero had declined the opportunity to take the shirt number amid calls from supporters for it to be permanently retired.

However, the Blaugrana were unable to retire the famous No. 10 jersey due to LaLiga rules that state that each team must assign their senior squad members numbers between one and 25.

It has been suggested that the only way Barca would have been able to surrender the number would have been if they permanently gave up a space on their first-team roster.

Despite these official regulations, though, it does appear that they could have left the No. 10 unused for the 2021/22 campaign as only numbers one to 24 have been taken, as revealed by the club's official Twitter account on Wednesday.

Even with No. 25 available, though, Barca decided to hand Messi's former shirt number to their 18-year-old Guinea-Bissau-born sensation following his incredible rise in becoming one of the best teenagers in world football.

Fati recently returned to first-team training at the Catalan club following a lengthy spell on the sidelines that forced him to miss most of the 2020/21 season and the 2020 UEFA European Championship with Spain due to injury.

Here are some players who had their jersey numbers permanently retired, including a 17-year-old! 

Jude Bellingham (Birmingham City, No. 22)

Paolo Maldini (AC Milan, No. 3)

Diego Maradona (Napoli, No. 10)

Emiliano Sala (Nantes, No. 9)

Senzo Meyiwa (Orlando Pirates, No. 1)

George Weah (Liberia, No. 14)

Cheick Tiote (Beijing Enterprises, No. 24)

Marc-Vivien Foe (Manchester City, No. 23)

Roberto Baggio (Brescia, No. 10)

Javier Zanetti (Inter Milan, No. 4)

Pele (New York Cosmos, No. 10)

Davide Astori (Fiorentina, No. 13)

Ferenc Puskas (Honved, No. 10)

Cecil Lolo (Ajax Cape Town, No. 21)

Johan Cruyff (Ajax Amsterdam, No. 14)

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