Why did certain players wear strange shirt numbers?

[Dark Savante]

Any story to why Ballack wears #13?

[sidis]

Pele play with the 10 because the others numbers in santos were taken, before pele the best player in the team commonly used the number 8, after pelé the number change to 10.

Luisão in Flamengo play with the 111 to celebrate the 111 years of Flamengo.

Romario wear the number 500 when he make 500 matches for Vasco da Gama.

[Cris 09]

Beckham wears 23 because it was Michael Jordan's shirt number. IIRC, Jordan himself wore 23 because his brother wore 45, and as that shirt was unavailable to him he wore 23, roughly half 45.

Yes, but he wore 23 because 7 was taken by Raul or some other player in Real. 7 is what he wore before in Man U.

[Gregoriak]

Pele play with the 10 because the others numbers in santos were taken, before pele the best player in the team commonly used the number 8, after pelé the number change to 10.


According to Pelé, he got the number ten because that was the number assigned to the position he was asked to play for Santos - inside left. Pelé recalled that the Santos coach said to him: "and you naturally play on the left" - and Pelé answered "yes, naturally!" This was somewhat a bizarre moment to Pelé, as his coach acted as if it was a law of nature that this young 16-year old kid had to play at the inside left position...

[German Ham]

Well I can't speak for each player themselves, but as an athlete myself I'll tell you why a lot of them (including myself) like to pick odd numbers...

It's because you're more easily identifiable. Let's say you want to pick a number. 10...wow, there have been SO MANY great number 10's. Number 7...there's been tons of great number 7's too and etc and etc. But let's say a player (we'll call him Jimmy Tomson, and he's a striker) decides to pick a number and picks, oh let's say 37. If he becomes a great player, he's easily identifiable.

When you'd say or think of 37, Jimmy Tomson would pop into your head. But when you think of a number like 10 or 7, you'd get a lot of great players' names in your head. Picking an odd number is a way for you to stand out more, to be unique, and to be easily identifiable.

[Cris 09]

uhm,.....no.

Well I can't speak for each player themselves, but as an athlete myself I'll tell you why a lot of them (including myself) like to pick odd numbers...

It's because you're more easily identifiable. Let's say you want to pick a number. 10...wow, there have been SO MANY great number 10's. Number 7...there's been tons of great number 7's too and etc and etc. But let's say a player (we'll call him Jimmy Tomson, and he's a striker) decides to pick a number and picks, oh let's say 37. If he becomes a great player, he's easily identifiable.

When you'd say or think of 37, Jimmy Tomson would pop into your head. But when you think of a number like 10 or 7, you'd get a lot of great players' names in your head. Picking an odd number is a way for you to stand out more, to be unique, and to be easily identifiable.

[FWS93]

Bati-gol didn't actually put a plus sign on his jersey though, he just wore 18 because 1+8= 9. I did the same thing, as when I joined my current team my old number 10 was taken, so I took 19 because 1+9=10.

Bati wore 20 & 33 for Roma as well, why? i have no clue

and i think he wore 19 during his short stay at inter

back at boca im sure he had more than one # 7, 9 & 11 come to mind but im not positive

[Cassano]

Bati wore 20 & 33 for Roma as well, why? i have no clue

and i think he wore 19 during his short stay at inter

back at boca im sure he had more than one # 7, 9 & 11 come to mind but im not positive

In my recollection, Bati only wore 18 for Roma. I don't remember him wearing 20 or 33.

Also, speaking of strange numbers, William Gallas has been given the number 10 at Arsenal...

[Bertje]

I just read Cruijff weared number 14 because that's the number he got when he came back from an injury in 1970. He used to wear number 9, but when he got back Mühren (Gerrie) had that number, which seems logical, since Mühren continues to wear number 9 for years. Cruijff didn't use number 10 because that number was given to first Nuninga and later Van Dijk. Cruijff kept number 14 as his own because he was very superstitious. He also used to chew some bubblegum before a match started which he would spit over the halfway line (he forgot his gum for the Europe Cup final of '69, which Ajax lost to Milan by 4-1). Besides those two things he also punched the goalkeeper in his stomach (not hard), he started to put his clothes on for the match 15 minutes before it started and got a massage 3 minutes before the match started. The one giving him a massage would have to say when he got up "Johan, een hele goede wedstrijd" (which means: "Johan, I hope you have a good match"). Cruijff would then put two fingers of his right hand in the air, which meant he would score two goals (he always did that, even if he scored more or less goals the last time). He would then leave the dressingroom as the last one and always had the ball when they went on the field.

I'm still wondering why Neeskens used to wear number 7 and Swart had number 8, as it would be much more logical vice versa.

[FWS93]

In my recollection, Bati only wore 18 for Roma. I don't remember him wearing 20 or 33.

Also, speaking of strange numbers, William Gallas has been given the number 10 at Arsenal...
#33
http://www.asromaultras.it/0203lazioroma_batistuta.jpg

#20
http://www.trikotkoffer.de/Trikotbilder/Vereine%20Italien/AS%20Rom/AS-Rom.jpg

[Cassano]

#33
http://www.asromaultras.it/0203lazioroma_batistuta.jpg

#20
http://www.trikotkoffer.de/Trikotbilder/Vereine%20Italien/AS%20Rom/AS-Rom.jpg

Then he must've changed his number in all 3 seasons he spent in Rome. In the first season, when they won the Scudetto, he wore 18:

http://www.subsidesports.com/uk/images/product/large/RomaHSSScudBoxNo18.0001.gif

That jersey with the number 20 on it is from Roma's 2001-2002 season,

and he wore 33 in 2002-2003.

[Shen-O]

Cassano took 18 in that season and Bati took 33.

[nirvaanfc]

In my recollection, Bati only wore 18 for Roma. I don't remember him wearing 20 or 33.

Also, speaking of strange numbers, William Gallas has been given the number 10 at Arsenal...

Vincent Kompany at Hamburg also wears 10 now i believe.

[Excape Goat]

Gallas with #10 is very strange.

[brassmonkey]

Any reason why Zidane wore different numbers for Juve, Real, and France?(21, 5, 10) ???

[Bertje]

Zidane also wore '4' for France, if I am correct.

[geego]

Number 10 at Real Madrid was already taken by Figo when Zidane signed.

[geego]

Sorry for double posting, but another anecdote with shirt numbers came to my mind.

As far as I know, Spain is the country where reserve goalkeepers wear traditionally number 13 instead of 12. The most widespread explanation is that it started as a superstition, as 13 is considered the "bad luck" number and the reserve keeper was after all the one less likely to play (when players lined up 1 to 11, and reserves 12 to 16).

[Excape Goat]

Any reason why Zidane wore different numbers for Juve, Real, and France?(21, 5, 10) ???


The situation in real madrid has already been explained. Figo was actually #7, but Raul the icon at Real Madrid got #7 which forced Figo to take #10..... and then, Zidane #5. At Juventus, Del Piero who was the icon there got #10.... so Zidane had to take a different number. I supposed that Zidane could have taken #21 at Real Madrid. Zidane was a natural #10.

[HSEUPASSION]

Gallas with #10 is very strange.

Wore 10 as a boy, always told himself he'd take it as a pro if he got a chance because it "reminds him of when football was for fun".

Adebayor wears 25 at Arsenal and 4 for Togo as a tribute to his hero Kanu. Kanu wore 25 for Arsenal and wears 4 for Nigeria.

Stephen Bywater at Derby County wears 43 as a tribute to his mentor who died at 43.

Bofo wears 1 when he plays in international club comps now, the goalkeeper switches to 28.

Jaaskalinen (SP?) wears 22 for Bolton because it's his lucky number.