Argentina's Squad Passport Numbers Leaked on Match Sheet Days Before the World Cup
The official match sheet from Argentina's final World Cup warm-up, a 3-0 win over Iceland, was published without redacting the squad's passport numbers, exposing the details of Lionel Messi, Lisandro Martínez, Enzo Fernández and the rest. On the pitch Messi returned from injury off the bench to score.
D ays before the World Cup, Argentina's squad was hit by an unusual privacy breach: the passport numbers of every player on the official match sheet for their final warm-up, a 3-0 win over Iceland, were published without being redacted. The document, handed to the referees about an hour before kickoff, normally has those numbers blacked out before it reaches the media. This time the redaction was missed, exposing the passport details of Lionel Messi, Lisandro Martínez, Enzo Fernández and the rest of the squad.
Every player on the sheet, but not Iceland's
All eleven starters and the substitutes were caught up in the slip, in a match played before about 88,000 spectators at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama. Iceland did not list passport numbers on its own team sheet and so avoided exposing its players. Several local outlets published the Argentine document before the oversight was noticed. We are not reproducing any of the leaked numbers.
A warm-up on the Road to '26
The friendly was staged by Road to '26, a company funded by Turkish Airlines that has organized a series of pre-tournament matches in the United States. For Argentina it was a final tune-up before the World Cup, which opens on June 11.
Messi sharp on his return
On the pitch the night went well. Messi, 38, came off the bench around the 70th minute, soon won and converted a penalty, and had a hand in the third goal, finished by Thiago Almada after a Rodrigo De Paul assist. Valentín Barco had opened the scoring. The reigning champions, widely seen as among the favourites to retain their title, will have been encouraged by the sight of Messi moving freely after the hamstring problem he picked up with Inter Miami about two weeks earlier.
An awkward data slip
The leak is an uncomfortable look on data protection just as the tournament's security and logistics come under scrutiny. Passport numbers are sensitive identifiers that can aid identity fraud, so their public exposure, even briefly, is exactly the kind of mistake teams and organizers will want to avoid once the World Cup itself is under way.
Reporting: ILH Sports Desk and wire reports, June 10, 2026.