Today’s date represents the same squad number change made at Manchester United in consecutive seasons.
When Sir Alex Ferguson hastily dispensed with Jaap Stam early in the 2001-02 season, he signed veteran French defender Laurent Blanc as his replacement and the Frenchman took the number 6 shirt that his Dutch predecessor had vacated.
At the time, Ronny Johnsen held the number 5 at Old Trafford but he was in his final season at the club. When he departed upon the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2002, Blanc took the number which he had had at his previous clubs Marseille and Internazionale, one he had worn for his country at Euro 92, Euro 96, World Cup 98 and Euro 2000.
That summer also saw Manchester United break the British transfer record by signing Rio Ferdinand from Leeds United for £30m. He inherited the now-empty 6.
It was the England international’s first time wearing a 1-11 number at club level (in the squad numers era, see comments) – during his five seasons at boyhood club West Ham United he had had 32 briefly, then 27 and then 15, while he took 29 when he joined Leeds during the 2000-01 season.
One might have expected him to retain that digit at his new club but, instead, when Blanc left at the end of the title-winning 2002-03 season, Ferdinand replicated the switch that the Frenchman had made a year previously.
At West Ham, Ferdinand had not taken the chance to wear 5 when it became free after Richard Hall’s retirement in 1998 but at Leeds it was held by club legend Lucas Radebe. He had, however, worn 5 for England at the 2002 World Cup and he was to keep the shirt for Manchester United until he left in 2014.
Ferdinand’s move also allowed Wes Brown to swap his number 24 for 6.
The last year of his career was spent at Queens Park Rangers, where he also wore 5. Marcos Rojo (2014-18, then switching to 16) and Harry Maguire (2019-present) are the players to have worn 5 for United since then.
Ferdinand did wear another 1-11 number at club level – he wore number 4 for all 10 games of his loan spell at Bournemouth between November 1996 and January 1997 (in the days when the Football League was still wearing 1-11 rather than squad numbers).
And he made his Man Utd debut at Bournemouth in 2002 in a testimonial match for Mel Machin, who had signed him for the Cherries. United’s starting XI wore 1-11 that day, with Ferdinand coming on in the 73rd minute, wearing 16.
Class contribution Mark. Thanks for adding this