Barcelona news: Lionel Messi's number 10 shirt could be handed to youth player | OneFootball

Somehow, Barcelona have to move on from Lionel Messi.

In the short-term at least, it's a wound that is going to sting. Not only have they lost perhaps the greatest player of all time but to do so amidst a backdrop of such alarming financial problems will be gutting.

Indeed, Barcelona have lost big players before. Diego Maradona, Ronaldo and Neymar have all left the Camp Nou at the peak of their powers for a multitude of reasons but none of those meant quite as much as the Argentine forged in the fires of La Masia.

Unlike Andres Iniesta and Xavi, Messi's performances were still amongst the best in the world when he left his boyhood club, so to even consider replacing him with a player of similar quality is outlandish.

Still, players will have to step up in his absence and the early signs from summer signing Memphis Depay are certainly promising, albeit he's clearly not on the same level as Messi. The Dutchman, along with Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele, have quite the job on their hands to prove their worth and carry the attacking burden.

What nobody at Barcelona will have to do for a while, however, is wear Messi's iconic Number 10 shirt.

According to Diario Sport, the club are (naturally) cautious about putting that kind of pressure on anybody in the current squad and will hand it to a player in their youth squad if they absolutely have to.

Unless the shirt is retired - which seems incredibly unlikely due to the marketing power such as iconic shirt carries - someone will have to wear it someday. Perhaps we'll see another golden child emerge from one of the most prolific academies in world football. Perhaps that shirt won't way so heavy on that player's shoulders.

Until that day dawns, however, it seems wise to leave it vacant.