Messi's Passport Number Included in Roster... Personal Data of All Argentina Players Leaked

Argentina's Player Roster with Passport Numbers Exposed

In a friendly match held ahead of the opening of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North and Central America, the passport details of all players on the Argentina national football team were leaked.

On June 10 (local time), foreign media outlets including The Independent reported that information containing the passport numbers of Argentina's national team players—including Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Lisandro Martinez (Manchester United), and Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)—was fully exposed to the public.

This security breach occurred just before Argentina played a friendly match against Iceland at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama, USA, the previous day. The player roster distributed to the media and general spectators included visible passport numbers that had not been redacted. In contrast, the Icelandic players’ passport numbers were omitted from their roster, so they did not experience the same breach.

At the time, more than 88,000 spectators gathered at the stadium. The player roster images containing passport numbers were shared by local media and were later deleted, according to reports.

Lionel Messi (Inter Miami). Photo by AP Yonhap News

Meanwhile, Argentina is considered a strong favorite to win the tournament. According to a study by researchers at the University of Reading in the UK, who used a supercomputer to simulate the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North and Central America 10,000 times, Argentina—the defending champion—showed the highest probability of winning.

The research team, led by economist James Reed at the University of Reading, analyzed the results of all international matches played by national teams since January 2023 to predict the World Cup outcome. The results showed that Argentina ranked first in terms of winning probability, ahead of France and Spain. Brazil and England followed, with Portugal, Colombia, the Netherlands, Germany, and Uruguay also making the top ten.

Reed explained through the university’s official blog, “Argentina received the highest rating, but the gap among the main favorites is very small,” adding, “The tournament is likely to be extremely competitive.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.