All national football divisions in Argentina will stop playing for a minute as a special homage to Argentina’s number 10 player and captain, Lionel Messi, who announced his retirement from the national team on Monday.
The Argentine Football Association (AFA) announced Wednesday that at every stadium hosting matches in the sport’s disciplines — 11-a-side soccer, futsal and beach soccer — for both men and women, games will be paused at the 10th minute of the first half.
For one minute, fans attending the matches and players will be able to applaud in tribute to Messi, who less than two months ago led the Albiceleste to its second consecutive World Cup Final, which it finally lost to Spain.
The now-former captain and Argentina’s all-time highest scorer announced his decision on August 31 in an Instagram post. In an image showing three handwritten pages bidding farewell to the fans, he explained the reasons that led him to step aside.
“After all this time that has passed since the final, after thinking about it a lot, I want to let everyone know that I am retiring from the national team,” Messi began.
