Argentina’s numbers for the 2026 World Cup: returnees and Qatar heirs | OneFootball

Lionel Scaloni has already finalized the 26 players called up for the Argentina national team who will travel to the World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada to defend the title won in Qatar 2022. The list also confirmed the numbers each player will wear at the biggest stage.

There are eight World Cup debutants: Juan Musso, Leonardo Balerdi, Facundo Medina, Valentín Barco, Nicolás González, Giuliano Simeone, Nicolás Paz, and José Manuel López. The final squad keeps 17 of the world champions from the last edition.

Colo Barco, who capped off a great season at Racing Strasbourg, will wear the number 8 shirt, most recently worn by Marcos Acuña. Meanwhile, Nicolás Paz, the standout star of Como, will wear number 18, previously used by Guido Rodríguez. José Manuel López, Palmeiras’ top scorer, will take over Paulo Dybala’s number 21, with Dybala notably not even included in the preliminary list.

Continuing with the newcomers, Juan Musso will wear the number 1 left vacant by Franco Armani, Cholito will do the same with the 17 that Alejandro Papu Gómez wore in 2022, Nico González (who missed the last World Cup due to an injury just days before the debut against Saudi Arabia) will have number 15, which was used by Ángel Correa. In defense, Balerdi and Medina will wear numbers 2 and 25, which were previously worn by Juan Foyth and Lisandro Martínez, respectively. And Licha? The vacant number 6 left by Germán Pezzella.

Another player inheriting a heavyweight number will be Giovani Lo Celso: he will wear Ángel Di María’s historic number 11. The Real Betis midfielder had also missed out on the title-winning campaign in Qatar at the last moment.

Beyond all those changes, there are 16 who will keep the same numbers: Emiliano Dibu Martínez (23), Gerónimo Rulli (12), Nicolás Tagliafico (3), Gonzalo Montiel (4), Cristian Romero (13), Nicolás Otamendi (19), Nahuel Molina (26), Leandro Paredes (5), Rodrigo De Paul (7), Exequiel Palacios (14), Alexis Mac Allister (20), Enzo Fernández (24), Julián Álvarez (9), Thiago Almada (16), Lautaro Martínez (22), and captain Lionel Messi (10).

Argentina’s squad numbers for the 2026 World Cup

1- Juan Musso

2 – Leonardo Balerdi

3 – Nicolás Tagliafico

4 – Gonzalo Montiel

5 – Leandro Paredes

6 – Lisandro Martínez

7 – Rodrigo De Paul

8 – Valentín Barco

9 – Julián Álvarez

10 – Lionel Messi

11 – Giovani Lo Celso

12 – Gerónimo Rulli

13 – Cristian Romero

14 – Exequiel Palacios

15 – Nicolás González

16 – Thiago Almada

17 – Giuliano Simeone

18 – Nicolás Paz

19 – Nicolás Otamendi

20 – Alexis Mac Allister

21 – José Manuel López

22 – Lautaro Martínez

23 – Emiliano Martínez

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.