A shirt made for a farewell. The gold of the Sun of May, the white and sky blue of the Selección and, above all, the stylised ‘M’ that identifies it as Messi’s. His farewell to the Argentina national team had an aura of its own, and the shirt created for the occasion quickly became a collector’s item. At 260,000 pesos, around €150, it was hardly cheap, but buyers were undeterred. It sold out in record time, and demand surged further after Argentina’s farewell match against Benin. Some 85,000 spectators were at the Monumental, while another 50 million watched online. On a night devoted to Messi, even the shirt had a part to play.
As Marca reported, searches for ‘Argentina Messi shirt’ rose by 531% on Google and other search engines in the 24 hours after the match. Anyone who had missed the social media campaign announcing the release could hardly have overlooked the shirt once Messi wore it on the pitch. It was no longer simply a special edition: it was the shirt he wore on the night he said goodbye to the national team. The Adidas design has been well received in its own right, but its place in that farewell has made it far more than a piece of sportswear. Messi has continued to share pictures of himself kissing the shirt, keeping it in the public eye long after the final whistle. The demand reflects both the appeal of the design and the extraordinary affection Argentine fans feel for him.
At 260,000 pesos, or around €150, the farewell albiceleste cost almost twice as much as Argentina’s shirt for the last World Cup, which remains popular with fans. Yet the special edition quickly disappeared from stores, with demand far outstripping supply. Messi raised it above his head and said ‘Gracias’ to the people who had cheered him on to the very end. For those who managed to buy one, the shirt is a tangible reminder of that night; for everyone else, it has become an increasingly elusive memento. Adidas had already revisited Messi’s history with Argentina a few months earlier, with a reissue of the 2006 shirt marking twenty years since his debut for the Selección. That release proved successful, too, but this one belongs to a different chapter: not the beginning of a story, but the closing of one. Outside the Monumental, some are still waiting.