Revealed: Why did Lionel Messi wear the No. 10 jersey during PSG's defeat to Marseille?

Many fans were left wondering after Lionel Messi was spotted wearing the No. 10 jersey during PSG's Coupe de France clash with Marseille on Wednesday, February 8.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) locked horns with Ligue 1 rivals Marseille in the Coupe de France Round of 16 on Wednesday. Despite the presence of the likes of Lionel Messi in the starting XI, they suffered a 2-1 loss in the match.

Alexis Sanchez opened the scoring for Marseille in the first half, but Sergio Ramos equalized for Les Parisiens just before half-time. The visitors, though, could not build on that and eventually saw Ruslan Malinovskyi grab the winner.

The defeat saw PSG crash out of the Round of 16 of the French Cup for the second season in a row. Apart from the Parisians' defeat, Messi's jersey number was interestingly one of the major talking points of the game.

In rather unusual fashion, the Argentinian icon was spotted wearing the No. 10 kit in his team's defeat to Marseille. It is worth noting that he has worn the No. 30 since joining the Parc des Princes outfit in 2021.

Messi is largely associated with the No. 10 jersey as he wears it for the Argentina national team. He also did the same for the best part of his 21-year-long stint with La Liga giants Barcelona.

However, the forward was forced to pick up the No. 30 kit when he joined PSG. He had to do as his former Barcelona teammate Neymar had already taken the No. 10 jersey.

While Messi has worn the No. 30 jersey without complaints throughout his spell in Paris, he has donned his former kit number on two occasions. Both of those instances notably came in the Coupe de France.

This is because the rules of the competition mandate that the players in the starting XI wear shirts with numbers from one to 11. Messi thus had to temporarily ditch his No. 30 kit in favor of the No. 10 against Marseille on Wednesday.

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What number did Lionel Messi's PSG teammate Neymar wear?

As mentioned above, Neymar usually wears the No. 10 kit for Ligue 1 giants PSG. However, he seems to be more than happy to allow Lionel Messi to don the jersey in the Coupe de France as he did last year as well.

While Messi wore the iconic shirt against Marseille, the Brazil international was spotted wearing the No. 11 kit. He had that number during his time with both Barcelona and Santos.