What the special gold badge on Argentina’s World Cup kit means

The 2026 World Cup is coming up soon, and Argentina are looking to defend their crown picked up in Qatar.

Fans will notice in North America that Argentina have a special gold badge in the middle of their shirt.

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This is a new addition for the South American giants, and no other team will have it.

Argentina aren’t among the favourites for the World Cup despite being the defending champions.

Lionel Messi hasn’t decided if he is going to play while Cristian Romero is likely to be missing.

They shouldn’t have too many problems getting out of the group with Algeria, Austria and Jordan.

And in those games, keep an eye out for the gold badge in the middle of the shirt.

Why are Argentina wearing the gold badge?

The gold badge represents the FIFA Champions Badge, which is a gold and white shield awarded by FIFA to the reigning World Cup champions.

This is not just in senior football, though.

It is also awarded to the reigning Women’s World Cup, Futsal World Cup and the Beach Soccer Club.

At club level, the Club World Cup champions, Intercontinental Cup and Women’s Champions Cup also have the badge.

It’s a temporary award, with only the winners allowed to wear it.

This award hasn’t been going for too long with it first coming into existence in 2008.

It was first created for the Club World Cup, with AC Milan becoming the inaugural side to wear the badge.

At the same time, the three previous winners of the Club World Cup, Corinthians, Internacional and Sao Paulo were told they could also claim the badge until new winners were crown.

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In 2008, the badge was extended to the World Cup and was given to 2006 champions Italy.

They became the first national team to wear the emblem on their shirts, and in 2009, it was extended to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

2007 champions Germany were given the honour of wearing it.

Since then, in the men’s game, we’ve seen Spain, Germany, France and now Argentina hold the badge.

No one has managed to retain it, but Argentina will hope to become the first.