By Solomon Wise
October, 2024
A football team consists of eleven players who usually start a game in a field of play, traditionally they are assigned numbers 1-11 at the back of their shirts for certain specific roles on the pitch. FIFA rules state that the 23 squad team must wear jerseys from numbers 1-23 and a little personal room for choice, here are the roles of the first eleven numbers in football.
No.1 – Goalkeeper No.7 – Right Attacking Midfielder (Winger)
No.2 – Right back (Defender) No.8 – Midfielder
No.3 – Left back (Defender) No.9 – Striker
No.4 – Center back (Defender) No.10 – Attacking Midfielder
No.5 – Center back (Defender) No.11 – Left Attacking Midfielder (Winger)
No.6 – Holding Midfielder
That is not the case anymore, in this era where we see unique and peculiar jersey numbers on the pitch, like the Manchester United goalkeeper wearing jersey number 24 instead of the number one shirt. Players can have a number of their choice, maybe due to their emotional feelings, or maybe a certain number has a meaning in their lives. In this article, we have listed unique player jersey numbers and what the number means to them.
THOMAS MICHEAL OAR – The retired Australian midfielder who played for the A-League Macarthur FC in Australia wore jersey number 121 since he was the 121st player to be signed/registered for his national team.
PHIL FODEN – The Manchester City player decided to wear the number 47 shirt to pay tribute to his grandfather, who died at the age of 47.
BRUNO GUIMARAES – The Newcastle United captain has number 39 at the back of his shirt which is the number of his dad’s old taxi dispatch number.
WILLIAM GALLAS—Though Gallas played for many different clubs as a defender before retiring, he wore jersey number 10 while playing for Arsenal (2006-2010) because his daughter was born on November 10.
RONALDO NAZARIO – We have seen the Brazilian legend with the famous jersey number nine in his National team and even most of the clubs that he played for, but he opted for jersey number 99 when he played for AC Milan because the number nine number was already taken by another legend Filippo Inzaghi and Ronaldo simply decided to copy and paste the number to get 99.
BIXENTE LIZARAZU – The 1998 World Cup winner chose number 69 to be at the back of his shirt during his final two years at Bayern Munich before retiring, He chose the number since he was born in 1969 hence his height was 169 and his weight was 69kg at the time.
TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD – Trent’s number 66 has become the most iconic kit number ever since he joined Liverpool FC in the 2017/18 season winning the Champions League and Premier League with the same club and same jersey number. He wears the number not because his Nation England won the World Cup in 1966 but because a kit operation manager Lee Radcliffe randomly picked it out for him one day.
MARIO BALOTELLI – Balotelli wore the number 45 jersey for Inter Milan, Man. City, AC Milan, Liverpool, Calcio, Adana Demirspor and FC Sion in his professional career. Since he was a striker and the main number of a striker was nine he chose the number as a youngster by adding 4 + 5 to make it nine.
IVAN ZAMORANO – The former Chilean wore the jersey number 1+8 during his Inter Milan time between 1996-2001 since he was a striker and the number nine was already taken by Ronaldo. Ivan refused to select another number for his jersey and started wearing a jersey bearing the number ‘1+8’ which mathematically meant he was still number nine a striker.
CRISTIANO LUPATELLI – Lupatelli was a professional goalkeeper before retiring from professional football and chose to wear the number 10 jersey which is so ironic since the number 10 player is supposed to score goals and not prevent them. He picked the number because he had made a bet with his friends and surprisingly the Italian club Chievo allowed the goalie to keep the number 10.
WILFRIED BONY – Bony had a fantastic encounter during his first spell with Swansea FC before moving to Manchester City and later to a Welsh club in 2017. However as Swansea were relegated from the Premier League that season, Bony returned to his former club Swansea but his former number was already taken and opted to wear a number 2 jersey which he says the number is to signify his second chance with the team.
Which jersey number meanings has impressed you and what is your take on the player’s jersey numbers?
Solomon Wise is a videographer with over 7 years of experience. When not writing on Respbet he works for various projects in graphics design and videography
