Which Shirt Number Will Messi Wear For Inter Miami?

Jun 11, 2023

by Patrick

Lionel Messi's move to Inter Miami has been confirmed, but there has been no official announcement on his shirt number yet.

Messi's Miami Shirt Number

Inter Miami are already seeing the impact of Messi's imminent arrival at the club. In the 24 hours after the announcement, the club's Instagram account jumped from 1 million to 5 million followers. All Inter Miami MLS matches are now sold out, home and away. And they are sure to see kit sales skyrocket, with a majority of them likely printed with Messi's name and number.

Messi has yet to be officially presented or even pose with his new club's jersey, and his shirt number has not been formalised. However, everything indicates that he will wear the number he is most associated with, 10. From 2008 to 2021 he occupied the number 10 at Barcelona. Having started his Blaugrana career with the number 30, he moved onto the number 19 for a couple of years before inheriting the big one from a certain Ronaldo de Assis Moreira.

When he moved to PSG, Neymar offered to vacate the number 10 out of respect for his new (and former) teammate, but Messi declined the offer and took the number 30 instead. In Miami, the number 10 shirt is not currently assigned to any member of the squad, and you have to imagine that even if it was, they would have to give it up for a player of Messi's stature, both out of respect and for marketing reasons.

It would be a huge surprise if Messi were to be unveiled with any number other than 10 on the back of his jersey when he's officially presented as an Inter Miami player. Since the announcement a couple of days ago, plenty of fans have already bought Messi 10 shirts, and you'd have to say that as far as jumping the gun goes, this risk involved here is pretty low.