Lionel Messi marked his return to action from a hamstring injury as he came off the bench in a FIFA World Cup warm-up game on Tuesday against Iceland to score a goal in Argentina‘s 3-0 win in front of over 88,000 people in Alabama’s Jordan-Hare Stadium. However, the game was marred by a security oversight that leaked passport details of several Argentine players, including Messi.
Occasionally, the team sheets issued an hour before the start of the game include the passport numbers of each player. But they are blurred out when released to the media. According to media reports, that did not happen when Argentina took on Iceland on Tuesday in a pre-World Cup game as the likes of Messi, Lisandro Martinez, and Enzo Fernandez all had their passport numbers exposed in the official team sheet, which was later reproduced by several local media organisations. In fact, the details of all the players in the starting XI and the substitutes had been leaked.
Iceland did not submit their passport numbers in their team sheet and hence avoided the fate.
The match was organised by Road to ‘26, a company sponsored by Turkish Airlines, which has organised several warm-up games this time.
But the off-field chaos did not affect the Argentina team. Messi calmly converted the resulting penalty to put his team 2-0 ahead and became the team’s oldest-ever goalscorer at the age of 38 years and 11 months, two months older than Angel Labruna, who had held the previous record since 1957.
The 38-year-old also played a role in the team’s third goal in the match, when he played a pass to Rodrigo de Paul, who in turn provided the assist for Thiago Almada. Valentin Barco scored the opener.
Messi said: “I’m happy, enjoying every moment, and excited as always. I felt really good; I wanted to get going and shake off the lingering fears that come with an injury — to be able to play freely. We have a week left to get everyone in top shape and be ready for the opener.”
The defending champions will kick off their title defence with a Group J match against Algeria on Tuesday.
