Some numbers are handed out. Others are chosen, kept through transfers, and carry a reason. Every story here links to where it came from.
Someone else had it, and this is what they did about it
#5 · Real Madrid
When Zidane arrived from Juventus in 2001, Figo had Madrid's 10 and Solari had 21. Florentino Pérez didn't want him in a high number — 25, 30 or 35 looked like American football to him, not football — and asked him to pick something from 1 to 10. The 5 had just been left by Manolo Sanchís, so Zidane took it. Jude Bellingham wears it now.
Source: goal.com#7 · Manchester United
Signing from Sporting in 2003, Ronaldo asked for 28, the number he had worn in Lisbon. Sir Alex Ferguson told him: "Look, I would like you to wear No. 7." Ronaldo said he was surprised, "because I knew of all the great players who had worn that jersey" — Best, Cantona and Beckham before him.
Source: espn.co.uk#8 · Liverpool
Gerrard debuted at 18 in the 28 shirt and spent his early career in 17, captaining Liverpool in it. Emile Heskey had the 8 until he left for Birmingham in 2004; Gerrard took it that summer and won the European Cup in it in his first season wearing it.
Source: liverpoolfc.com#9 · Newcastle
Shearer grew up wanting Newcastle's 9, so he asked for it when he signed in 1996 — except Les Ferdinand was wearing it, having taken it from Andy Cole a year earlier. Ferdinand gave it up, saying he never held a grudge: Kevin Keegan wanted Shearer to have it, and so did most of Tyneside. The two of them scored 49 between them that season.
Source: planetfootball.com#10 · Paris Saint-Germain
Ibrahimović wore 10 for Sweden but never at a club until PSG. Nenê had it when he signed in 2012, so he started in 18, and took the 10 only when Nenê left in the January — UEFA's rules meaning he had to stay in 18 in Europe for the rest of that season.
Source: fourfourtwo.com#10 · Arsenal
Gallas wanted 13, his number at Chelsea, but Alexander Hleb had it at Arsenal, so he asked for 10. Arsène Wenger hesitated because it was Dennis Bergkamp's, then decided a defender was the right person to have it: a striker in Bergkamp's 10 would suffer too much from the comparison.
Source: en.wikipedia.org#14 · Arsenal
The most famous 14 in English football was not his first choice. Henry wanted 12 — Marco van Basten's number at Euro 88, and his own for France — but Christopher Wreh had it and Henry would not take it off a teammate. He finally wore 12 on his loan return to Arsenal in 2012.
Source: caughtoffside.com#16 · Manchester City
Agüero wore 10 in Argentina, but when he joined City in 2011 it belonged to Edin Džeko: "Edin had it — he wore it very well, and of course, I respected it. That's why I picked the No. 16." He kept it for four seasons and switched to 10 when Džeko left for Roma in 2015.
Source: espn.com#18 · Inter Milan
Baggio signed for Inter in 1998 and wanted the 10, so Ronaldo was moved to 9 — Zamorano's number. Rather than give it up in spirit, Zamorano took 18 and wore a small plus sign between the digits: 1+8. Inter great Sandro Mazzola suggested it, and it is the shirt everyone remembers him in.
Source: football-italia.net#23 · Real Madrid
Beckham could not have the 7 at Real Madrid — Raúl had worn it for years. He took 23 for Michael Jordan, reportedly after Victoria pointed out whose number it was, and kept it at LA Galaxy afterwards.
Source: si.com#32 · AC Milan
On loan at Milan in 2009, neither of Beckham's numbers was free: Pato had 7 and Massimo Ambrosini had 23. He flipped 23 round to 32, the number of Magic Johnson, another of his basketball heroes after Michael Jordan, whose 23 he had worn at Real Madrid.
Source: 90min.com#35 · Swansea City
Sanches wore 85 at Benfica and asked for it again when he joined Swansea in 2017. The Premier League refused: its rules require squad numbers to run close to consecutively, and 85 would have been the highest ever worn in the competition. He took 35 instead, the number he had at Bayern.
Source: skysports.com#44 · Monaco
Fàbregas had worn 4 at Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea, but arrived at Monaco in January 2019 to find it taken by Jean-Eudes Aholou — and Ligue 1 rules fix a club's numbers 72 hours before the season, so nothing could be moved mid-year. He doubled it to 44 for the rest of that season and took 4 back the following summer.
Source: footyheadlines.com#77 · Parma
Buffon is listed at 77 for Parma in 2000/01, but he started that season on 88. He had said it stood for four balls — strength and determination, as he put it, which he needed to win back his place in the Italy side. The choice drew protests because 88 is used as neo-Nazi code, which Buffon said he had been unaware of, and he switched to 77.
Source: skysports.com#99 · AC Milan
Ronaldo joined Milan in January 2007 having worn 9 for most of his career, but Filippo Inzaghi already had it and Milan would not ask him to give it up. So he doubled it.
Source: givemesport.comA number worn for a person, or for people
#5 · Real Madrid
Bellingham wore 22 at Birmingham and Dortmund — 10 plus 8 plus 4, for the midfield roles he plays — but Rüdiger had it at Real Madrid. He took 5 instead, for Zidane: "I’ve said in many interviews how much I admire Zinedine Zidane, the legacy he’s had at the club with this number. I’m just trying to be Jude, but it’s definitely a bit of a homage to how great he was."
Source: thescore.com#6 · Barcelona
Gavi was given Barcelona's 6 — Xavi's number for 13 seasons — while Xavi was his coach, the midfielder seen as his heir. He was due to wear it in 2022/23, but Barcelona couldn't register him as a first-team player, so he played on in 30 until his senior contract went through the following summer.
Source: football-espana.net#11 · Wolves
Patrício turned down the number 1 when he signed for Wolves in 2018. It belonged to Carl Ikeme, who had just retired after a year of treatment for acute leukaemia following eighteen years at the club, and Patrício chose not to inherit it. He took 11 instead — a number almost no goalkeeper wears.
Source: si.com#14 · Arsenal
Aubameyang arrived at Arsenal in January 2018 wanting 7: "I wanted number 7, but Mkhi arrived and took it." So he took Thierry Henry's 14 — "Why not follow in the footsteps of a legend?" — while adding that he didn't compare himself to Henry, "because he achieved so many great things."
Source: arsenal.com#26 · Manchester City
Savinho took the 26 Riyad Mahrez had worn at Manchester City, having grown up watching him: "He is an inspiration here, that’s why I chose his number." Mahrez, whom fans thought he resembled, replied on social media with a single "Wait a minute".
Source: mancity.com#29 · Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Havertz and his brother used to put themselves into FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer, and his brother always gave himself 29. When Leverkusen asked which number he wanted, "I asked them which numbers were free. When they said 29, I said I'd take it because of my brother." He has kept it at Chelsea and Arsenal: "Sometimes it's lucky for me, sometimes not, but I like the number and now I think everybody knows me for it."
Source: goal.com#37 · Liverpool
Litmanen asked Liverpool for 77, to carry the sevens of his two idols, Kevin Keegan and Kenny Dalglish. He was told it was too high — it would have been the biggest number in the league — so he took 37 instead, and decided it was better: three times seven, for Keegan, Dalglish and himself.
Source: liverpoolfc.com#39 · Newcastle
Guimarães wears 39 for his father's taxi. His father drove one in Brazil for over twenty years, and suggested the number when Bruno signed his first professional contract — the taxi, as Bruno puts it, gave the family everything they had. He has it tattooed, and has worn it at every club since.
Source: arsenal.com#47 · Manchester City
Foden wears 47 for his grandfather Ronnie, who died at that age. He has turned down the number 10 at Manchester City to keep it, saying he would rather create his own legacy with 47.
Source: givemesport.com#68 · AC Milan
Rodríguez's mother, Marcela, died of cancer in 2015. He had 68 — the year she was born — tattooed on his back, and took it as his shirt number when he signed for Milan.
Source: en.wikipedia.org#74 · Fiorentina
Salah wore 74 at Fiorentina in memory of the seventy-four people killed in the Port Said stadium disaster in his native Egypt in 2012.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com#95 · Atalanta
Bastoni wears his brother's birth year. He made the promise when he was first called into the Atalanta senior squad, and has described it as a way of having his brother and the rest of his family on the pitch with him.
Source: sempreinter.comThe year they were born. Five of these come from one Milan window, where the club's rule was never to ask a player to give up a number
#76 · AC Milan
Shevchenko returned to Milan in 2008 to find his old number 7 gone, and followed the birth-year convention Ronaldinho had just set in the same window. He was born in 1976.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com#80 · AC Milan
Ronaldinho arrived at Milan in 2008 to find Clarence Seedorf wearing 10 — a problem, given Nike had built a whole product line around his '10R' branding. Milan's position was that in twenty-three years they had never asked a player to hand over his number, so Ronaldinho took his birth year instead.
Source: mlssoccer.com#84 · AC Milan
Flamini joined Milan in 2008 in the same window as Ronaldinho and Shevchenko, and like both of them found his usual number taken. All three settled on the year they were born.
Source: en.wikipedia.org#92 · AC Milan
El Shaarawy came through at Milan as the birth-year habit was taking hold there, and 92 stuck: he has carried it through Monaco and Roma, long after the teenager it originally marked out had grown up.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com#99 · AC Milan
Donnarumma took 99 at Milan as a sixteen-year-old for the year he was born, and kept it for six seasons — part of a run of Milan players wearing their birth year that began when Ronaldinho arrived to find the 10 taken.
Source: givemesport.comSuperstition, arithmetic, and private systems
#2 · Swansea City
Bony returned to Swansea in 2017 and picked 2 to mark it being his second spell at the club — an outfield forward wearing a number normally reserved for a right-back.
Source: givemesport.com#4 · Liverpool
Van Dijk wore 4 at Groningen and wanted it again, but at Southampton it belonged to his friend Jordy Clasie and he wouldn't ask for it. Liverpool's was free, and it carried Sami Hyypiä, who had played for Willem II — the club where Van Dijk spent ten years. He called it a perfect match.
Source: si.com#17 · Arsenal
Zinchenko had wanted 17 for eight seasons — the number he wore as a boy and wears for Ukraine — but it was taken at Manchester City, at PSV and at Arsenal too. When Cédric Soares left in 2024 he asked for it and swapped his 35 for it: "The number 17 is a very special number to me. It’s why I wear it for my country."
Source: arsenal.com#20 · Manchester United
Signing from Arsenal in 2012, van Persie could choose 20 or 21. United had won 19 league titles, and coach René Meulensteen told him to take 20 for the 20th. He scored 26 league goals that season, including a hat-trick against Aston Villa that won the title.
Source: squawka.com#21 · AC Milan
The 21 followed Pirlo from Brescia through Inter, Milan and Juventus. His father was born on the 21st, he married on the 21st and made his Serie A debut on the 21st: it became his number early, he said, and he never let it go.
Source: 90min.com#45 · Inter Milan
Balotelli picked 45 as a teenager at Inter, where the youth players were given numbers between 36 and 50. He chose it because four plus five is nine — the striker's number — and then scored in all four of his first games wearing it. He has called it lucky and kept it at every club since, Liverpool included.
Source: liverpoolfc.com#52 · Arsenal
Bendtner switched from 26 to 52 at Arsenal on the advice of a clairvoyant, who told him it was his lucky number. It did not obviously work, and he later moved to 23.
Source: givemesport.com#69 · Bayern Munich
Returning to Bayern in January 2005, Lizarazu found his old 3 taken by Lucio and went looking for something better. He told France Football: "Since I was born in 1969 and I’m 1.69m tall, I thought 69 could be a good idea." He knew exactly how it would be read — "I got teased about it, but I was prepared for that" — and it remains the most famous joke number in the Bundesliga.
Source: le10sport.comNumbers a club put away, usually for a player it lost
#3 · AC Milan
Maldini wore 3 at Milan until he retired in 2009, after 25 years and 902 appearances. The club put the number away when he went, with one condition: it is "bequeathed to one of his sons if one of them were to make the club's senior team". Daniel Maldini reached the first team in 2019 and wore 98, then 27.
Source: en.wikipedia.org#4 · Inter Milan
Zanetti wore 4 for Inter for nineteen seasons, from 1995 until he retired in 2014 — 858 games, more than anyone else in the club's history. Inter retired the number on 4 May 2015, at a charity match he had organised himself at San Siro.
Source: en.wikipedia.org#6 · AC Milan
Baresi captained Milan for fifteen years and retired at the end of 1996/97, his twentieth season at the club. Milan retired the 6 he had worn throughout — the first number the club put away, and the reason Maldini's 3 followed twelve years later.
Source: en.wikipedia.org#9 · Nantes
Sala had just left Nantes for Cardiff when the plane taking him to Wales came down over the Channel in January 2019. Nantes retired the 9 he had worn for three seasons as their top scorer. Club president Waldemar Kita: "Emiliano left his mark. That's why, like many fans, I wish to honour him by retiring the No.9."
Source: goal.com#10 · Brescia
Baggio spent his last four seasons at Brescia, the smallest club of his career, and took them to their highest Serie A finishes. When he retired in 2004 Brescia locked the 10 away — "sotto chiave per sempre", under lock and key forever.
Source: goal.com#13 · Fiorentina
Astori was Fiorentina's captain when he died in his sleep before a match in March 2018, aged 31. Both clubs where he had worn 13 retired it that year: Fiorentina, and Cagliari, where he spent six seasons.
Source: goal.com#16 · Sevilla
Puerta, a Sevilla academy player, collapsed during a league match in August 2007 and died three days later, aged 22. Sevilla said they would retire his 16, but the Spanish federation refused: squads must use 1 to 25 with no gaps. The club made it an academy shirt instead, and since 2015 only youth-team products have worn it.
Source: en.wikipedia.org#20 · Liverpool
Jota died in a car crash with his brother André in July 2025, weeks after winning the league with Liverpool. On 11 July the club retired the 20 across every level — men's, women's and academy — after speaking to his wife Rute and his family. It is the only number Liverpool have retired in their history: "By retiring this squad number, we are making it eternal — and therefore never to be forgotten."
Source: liverpoolfc.com#21 · Espanyol
Jarque, Espanyol born and bred, was made captain in the summer of 2009 and died of heart failure days later, aged 26, on a pre-season trip to Italy. The club retired his 21 and now gives it only to academy players. At every home game the crowd applauds in the 21st minute.
Source: rcdespanyol.com#23 · Manchester City
Foé was on loan at Manchester City from Lyon when he collapsed in the centre circle playing for Cameroon in June 2003, and died soon after. City retired the 23 he had worn that season — his only one at the club, and their last at Maine Road.
Source: givemesport.com#38 · West Ham
Tombides was diagnosed with testicular cancer at 17 and played on between rounds of chemotherapy, wearing 38 in 2010/11 and 2011/12, 39 in 2012/13, then 38 again for his last season. He died in April 2014, aged 20. The day after, his father and brother laid his 38 shirt on the centre spot at the Boleyn Ground, and West Ham retired the number — the only one they have put away besides Bobby Moore's 6.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHanded a number by a kitman or left with whatever was free, and it stuck
#7 · Manchester United
Cantona took the 7 from Bryan Robson when he signed in November 1992 — because, as he put it, Robson was old, too old. He said he felt the ghosts of the past in the shirt at United, and that where it paralyses some players, it helped him. Beckham and Ronaldo followed him into it.
Source: goal.com#25 · Bayern Munich
When Müller got his first professional contract, the numbers 1 to 11 all belonged to established players, and the kitman gave him 25 — probably, Müller says, not expecting him to be around long. He broke through that first season, a lot of fans bought 25 shirts, and when he could have changed he decided to keep it. He wore it for the rest of his Bayern career.
Source: fcbayern.com#33 · Manchester City
Jesus made 33 a condition of moving to Manchester City: "I had told them it's hard without the 33. I want this number because I used it since I was promoted at Palmeiras." A religious meaning is often suggested, but he has never given one. He switched to 9 in 2019.
Source: goal.com#39 · Manchester City
Anelka took 39 at Manchester City only because barely any numbers were left when he signed. He liked it enough to keep it for the rest of his career, wearing it at Bolton, Chelsea and West Brom.
Source: bwfc.co.uk#41 · West Ham
There is no grand story behind 41 — it was simply the number the West Ham kitman handed Rice at academy level, and he never gave it up. He has said he now feels changing it could affect his performances, which is why he kept it after his British-record move to Arsenal.
Source: arsenal.com#66 · Liverpool
Liverpool deliberately give academy graduates a high number — as kit manager Lee Radcliffe put it, they don't want a young player thinking he has made it straight away. Alexander-Arnold was handed 66 for a first-team chance at Tranmere in 2016, shrugged and kept it, and it became one of the most recognisable numbers in the Premier League.
Source: liverpoolfc.com#87 · Paris Saint-Germain
No hidden meaning here: 87 was simply the only number Neves liked that was free when he broke into the Benfica side. He kept it on his move to Paris Saint-Germain.
Source: frenchfootballweekly.comKnow why a player wears their number? Open their page and use “Know why they wear this number?” — every submission is checked against a source before it appears here.
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