At Buenos Aires’ Monumental, Lionel Messi’s Argentina farewell carried the warmth of a homecoming and the finality of a departure. Accompanied by his family, the No. 10 left the pitch to applause from his Argentina team-mates after scoring in the occasion marked on Tuesday the 6th.
A small detail on the No. 10 shirt
One visual feature of Messi’s shirt quickly became a talking point beyond the stadium. The upper inner cuts of the 1 and the 0 in his number appeared to create two upward points, producing a shape that many supporters read as a pair of goat horns.
- The apparent horns were visible within the “10” on Messi’s Argentina jersey.
- The image naturally recalled his long-standing “GOAT” label: “Greatest Of All Time”.
- As “goat” also names the animal in English, the design prompted speculation that it had been made especially for Messi’s farewell.
In the setting of his last Argentina appearance, the coincidence made for an especially neat piece of symbolism. It was not, however, a bespoke tribute hidden in the shirt.
Part of Adidas’s wider international typeface
The points are elements of Adidas’s official geometric numbering style for the current international-kit cycle. They appear on the shirts of several national teams supplied by the German manufacturer, rather than being exclusive to Argentina or Messi.
- Japan’s Ritsu Doan has the same feature on his No. 10 shirt.
- Colombia’s James Rodríguez also wears the markings in the number 10.
- Mexico forward Raúl Jiménez is among the players whose national-team numbering uses the same typeface.
Messi’s number made the pattern far more conspicuous: on Argentina’s most famous shirt, during a farewell at the Monumental, a routine piece of kit design looked briefly like a carefully placed nod to the player many call football’s greatest ever.
