Diego Armando Maradona is a footballer that needs no introduction. Right now you can go to the https://www.1xbet.ug/ website and start making wagers on other great footballers from Argentina and elsewhere. His career is just incredible, and it has things such as:
- he scored 259 goals at a club level;
- he played 91 games for the Argentinian national team;
- and he scored 34 international goals.
All of this, plus his incredible talent, makes Maradona one of the best footballers ever. At 1xBet you will always come across other great chances to wager on extraordinary football names too. Of course, he is also known for using the iconic number 10. The devotion to Maradona is so huge, even when he was alive, that the Argentinian Football Association seriously tried to retire this number in the national team.
A conflict with FIFA
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was approaching. You are welcomed at 1xBet – all best football bets are featured whenever other major competitions are being played too. For this edition of the World Cup, the number of players in each squad was increased from 22 to 23. Because of FIFA’s rules, all players needed to be consecutively numbered from 1 to 23.
You may already see the problem. If Argentina wanted to take 23 players to that tournament, they would need to mandatory have a number 10. Now all of the best football bets can be performed through 1xBet on the Argentinian national side too.
The Argentinian Football Association sent a letter to FIFA. In it, they formally requested to submit a squad of 23 players to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but with them numbered 1 to 24, and skipping the number 10. FIFA said absolutely no.
A not so widespread idea
Despite Maradona having almost god-like status in Argentina, not everybody in that country agreed with this idea in the first place. You can get the 1xBet download app for betting if you want to wager on Argentinian football too.
For example, Mario Kémpes, who used the number 10 during the 1978 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, disagreed. He stated that the number belonged to football as a whole and not to an individual name.
Eventually, Argentina was forced to choose a number 10 for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The player with that number in the competition was Ariel Ortega. At the time, many considered him Maradona’s successor, but many off-field solutions prevented him from achieving that. Go to 1xBet and download its official app for betting on other highly talented players too.
Many years later, Lionel Messi would become the true successor to Maradona, with the number 10 on his back. In fact, he would win the 2022 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, making him one of the best footballers ever.
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