The story behind football numbers

CAIRO – 21 June 2017: The first thing a player does when they are transferred to a new club is pick the number on the back of their shirt.

This number not only represent one or two digits; it often has a story behind it. Players like Zamarano, Lizarazu, Ronaldinho, Cech, Balotelli and Bendtner are some of the football players that have a story behind their numbers.

Ivan Zanarano 1+8 at Inter Milan.

The Chilean International football player Ivan Zamarano wore the 1+8 shirt during his time at Inter Milan. The Chilean wanted to wear the number 9 shirt but was faced with the fact that Ronaldo wears the number 9. So, he decided to choose number 18 and get a plus sign and place it between 1 and 8.

Bixente Lizarazu 69

The French legendary defender wore the number 69 at Bayern Munich. There were three reasons behind that. Firstly, he was born in 1969. Also Lizarazu weighted 69 kilograms and was 169 centimeters tall at the time.

Ronaldinho 80 at AC Milan
AC Milan players had a trend of picking their numbers based on the year they were born. Andriy Shevchenko wore 76, Robinho wore 83, Stephan El Shaarawy wore 92. So, the Brazilian legend decided to wear 80 because he was born in 1980.

Peter Cech 33

After leaving Chelsea the club with which he had the most success, Cech wanted to stay in London and decided to play for Arsenal. He chose 33 because that was his age when he joined the team.

Mario Balotelli 45

Mario Balotelli, AC Milan and Inter Milan’s former striker, wore the number 45 for several reasons. Inter Milan’s youngster at the time wanted to pick number 9, but the Italian football federation only allows youngsters to pick numbers above 30. He chose 45 instead because four and five adds up to nince. For Balotelli 45 became a lucky number because of his outstanding performance wearing the shirt.

Nicklas Bendtner 52

Bendtner wore 26 during his time at Arsenal, before deciding to double it to 52. His reasoning was that by doubling his number he would also double his form.

Football is full of interesting stories and secrets that are yet to be told. Each football match, transfer, or occasion has many stories within it yet to be revealed.