Lionel Messi football shirts

Lionel Messi is the modern face of the number 10, but he wore two other numbers at Barcelona before it became his, and he went back to the first of them when he left. Here is his career told through the shirts he wore.

By the Football Shirts UK editorial team · Updated October 2026

Messi’s shirts at a glance

Barcelona: the 30

Messi grew up in Rosario, Argentina, and joined Barcelona’s academy as a boy. He made his competitive first-team debut in October 2004 wearing 30, a high number of the kind given to academy players stepping up. He wore it for his first two seasons, and a Barcelona shirt with 30 MESSI is now a sought-after reminder of where it started.

The 19

From the 2006–07 season Messi wore 19. It was a step up from an academy number, but the 10 was still Ronaldinho’s, and Ronaldinho was the team’s star. The 19 covers the seasons in which Messi went from promising teenager to the player opponents planned around.

The 10

When Ronaldinho left in 2008, Messi took the 10 and kept it for thirteen seasons, until he left the club in 2021. Those years include Champions League final wins in Rome in 2009, at Wembley in 2011 and in Berlin in 2015.

The shirt changed around him during that time. Barcelona’s blue and red stripes were made by Nike throughout, but the front of the shirt went from no commercial sponsor at all, to the UNICEF logo the club carried from 2006, to Qatar-branded sponsors and later Rakuten. You can date a Messi Barcelona shirt from the front as easily as from the number on the back.

Paris Saint-Germain: back to 30

When Messi joined PSG in 2021, Neymar already wore the 10. Messi chose 30, the number he had worn when he first broke into Barcelona’s team. It turned two seasons in Paris into a neat bookend to his first, and made the PSG 30 shirt one of the more distinctive in his collection.

Inter Miami: the 10 in pink

Messi joined Inter Miami in 2023 and returned to the 10. The club’s pink home shirt, made by adidas as the supplier to all MLS clubs, became one of the most visible football shirts in the United States almost overnight. He signed a new contract with the club in 2025.

Argentina: from 19 to 10

Messi made his senior Argentina debut in 2005 and wore 19 at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. By the 2010 World Cup he had the 10, the number of Diego Maradona, who was by then Argentina’s coach. He has worn it at every World Cup since.

Argentina’s sky blue and white stripes, made by adidas, are tied to the biggest moments of his international career: the 2021 Copa América, his first senior title with Argentina, and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where he captained the side to victory over France in the final. At the trophy presentation he was dressed in a black bisht, a traditional Arab cloak, over his shirt, an image that became part of how that tournament is remembered.

A number that fits the player

The 10 has always meant the creative heart of a team. Messi took it at Barcelona from Ronaldinho, wore it for Argentina in the line from Maradona, and made a version of the number that is now his as much as theirs. The 30 matters too: it is the number he started with, and the one he chose when he had to start again.

Messi and adidas

Messi has been an adidas player for almost his entire career, and his boots are as recognisable to fans as his shirts. For which boots he wears now and the story behind his signature models, see FootballBoots.co.uk’s guide to Messi football boots.