Argentina's national soccer team was hit by a major embarrassment just days before the opening of the world's biggest summer soccer tournament – the passport details of every player in the squad that participated in a pre-World Cup friendly were accidentally leaked.
Match sheets submitted to referees just over an hour before kickoff sometimes include passport numbers, but they are typically redacted before being released to the media. In this case, when head coach Lionel Scaloni's Argentina faced Iceland on Tuesday, the redaction was not carried out, and the passport numbers of players, including Lionel Messi, Lisandro Martínez, and Enzo Fernández, were exposed in the official match sheet that was subsequently published by several local media outlets.
All 11 starters as well as the substitutes were caught up in the unusual incident, during a match played before 88,000 spectators at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama. Iceland did not include passport numbers on its sheet and thus avoided exposing its players' details.
The match itself was organized by Road to '26, a company funded by Turkish Airlines, which organized additional warm-up matches ahead of the World Cup opening.
On the pitch, Messi came on as a substitute in the 70th minute, immediately scored a penalty he had also won, and helped Argentina to a 3-0 victory, as one of the tournament's heavy favorites to defend their 2022 title. Messi, 38, was also involved in the third goal when he threaded a pass to Rodrigo De Paul, who then assisted Thiago Almada. Valentín Barco scored the first goal.
The Argentine star also addressed his physical condition following the hamstring injury he suffered about two weeks before the tournament opener while playing for Inter Miami, saying, "I've been enjoying it from the start... I'm happy, savouring every moment and excited as ever. "I felt great; I'd been keen to play for a while, having been carrying that niggle [muscle fatigue] since I arrived. I was eager to get going and shake off the lingering fears you have when you're carrying an injury, so I could play freely."
