French Goalkeepers Numbers

[oguzmania]

Hi from Turkey.

Why French GK's choose generally number 16? Is there any meaningful explanation?

Thanks for your answers...

[guignol]

i wouldn't say they generally do... but barthez wore 16 so that is some way to an explanation.

mandanda has worn 16 recently, but i have the impression it was new for him, a lot of players had changed or traded numbers before romania.

[oguzmania]

Thanks for your answer.

I dont mean to say French goalkeepers are national team goalkeepers. For example in Ligue 1 all team's goalkeepers choose number 16. Only Lyon don't use number 16 because his old GK died in traffic accident so they don't use it because of the respect.

Sorry for my bad English.

[guignol]

thank you for bringing up the subject; i knew OL had retired borelli's number, but hadn't even realized it was 16... our keepers recently have tended to wear numbers other than 1 OR 16.

unconsciously i still considered 1 the most common shirt number and since there used to be 16 players suiting up, that was a logical number for the backup. but i see that most starters in france right now wear it.

[oguzmania]

Ok, thanks for your answer...