Inflation-ravaged Argentina is considering issuing its highest-ever denomination banknote – with convicted tax fraudster Leo Messi’s face on it.

Silvina Batakis – the head of Banco de la Nacion Argentina – recently revealed that the Argentine government is considering introducing an ARS-10,000 note.

Banco de la Nacion Argentina is a national bank and the largest in Argentina’s banking sector.

The note – officially worth GBP 43 – would be the country’s highest-ever denomination bill.

The revelation comes less than a week after the Argentine Central Bank board approved the issuing of an ARS-2,000 bill.

This, in turn, replaces the ARS-1,000 bill as the country’s highest-denomination banknote.

Argentina ended 2022 with a staggering inflation rate of 95 per cent – one of the world’s highest.

And local media are reporting that the new note being mooted by the current government would feature the likeness of football ace Lionel Messi.

An image shows what the large bill may look like – with a grinning Messi in his white-and-sky-blue Argentina shirt lifting the World Cup trophy.

Superstar Messi, 35, recently led the Argentina football team to victory in Qatar, bringing the country’s World Cup trophy tally to three.

Local media did not comment on whether it felt the suggestion was appropriate, given the forward has convictions for tax fraud in Spain.

The PSG man – then at Barcelona – was originally handed a prison sentence of 21 months by a Spanish court.

This was after he and his dad were found guilty of using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights.

However, Messi’s sentence – accompanied by a fine of about EUR 2 million – was later changed to an additional fine of EUR 252,000.

Even if his prison sentence had been maintained, he would not have gone to jail, as sentences under two years in Spain are automatically suspended.

Argentina’s new ARS-2,000 bill will feature the likenesses of medical pioneers Cecilia Grierson and Ramon Carrillo.