When a referee approached Lionel Messi after the final whistle of Wednesday’s Inter Miami-Sporting Kansas City game in Kansas, he wasn’t issuing Messi a belated yellow card. He had a request.

As it also happens in every Lionel Messi game, whether his team plays at home or away, the rivals wanted to keep his legendary No. 10 jersey, and the one to take the memory of a historic night was ...