France have finalised their numbers for Euro 2024 – see here for our squads page – and, as has been the case for the previous three tournaments, Kylian Mbappé will wear the number 10.
At club level, the attacker has worn number 7 for Paris Saint-Germain since 2018-19 – with an extra layer of numerology added as Ousmane Dembélé, France’s number 11, took 10 at the club when Neymar left last year.
Mbappe has of course now left PSG for Real Madrid. The number 7 shirt at the European champions is a fabled one but it is currently held by Vinicius Jr and that is likely to be the case for the foreseeable future.
While 8 became free after Saturday night’s Champions League final win over Borussia Dortmund as it was Toni Kroos’ last game at club level, it was announced soon after that midfielder Federico Valverde would swap his number 15 for 8.
The number 10’s ownership in Madrid is not up for immediate claiming but the 2024-25 season is expected to be Luka Modrić’s last at the club. With 9 vacant since Karim Benzema departed a year ago, it seems that Mbappé will wear that as a placeholder and then shift to 10. It’s a strategy not unlike that employed by another star player upon his arrival at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu 15 years ago.
Before we look at Real Madrid’s 2009-10 squad numbers, first we need to look at an usual situation during the previous campaign.
Mahamadou Diarra was signed by Madrid from Lens in the summer of 2006. Initially, he was assigned number 21 but then, after wearing that in the opening league game, he was switched with number 6 Iván Helguera, something league rules allowed at the time.
The Malian still had 6 on his back in 2008, when a nasty knee injury on international duty in October ruled him out for the rest of the season.
During the January transfer window, he was de-registered from the club’s 25-man squad and his namesake, French midfielder Lassana Diarra, was signed. He took over the number 6, albeit with ‘Lass’ on the back.
We will returned to the Diarras, but in June of 2009 Madrid made two huge statements of intent as Kaká was signed from Milan for a world record fee of approximately £56m. The Brazilian had worn number 22 during his time in Italy but Madrid’s director general Jorge Valdano explained at his unveiling that he would have a new one on his back.
“I want to clear up the reason why he has been given the number 8 jersey,” he said.
“As you know, numbers 5, 18 and 9 were not assigned. We knew that Fernando Gago wanted to wear the number 5 – that is something that us Argentinians understand very well, it’s a very special number for us.
“So we gave Kaka the number 8, which he was very happy to have. For the first time at Real Madrid, we made two people happy at the very same time.”
Gago was inheriting the number 5 shirt vacated by Fabio Cannavaro’s return to Juventus – as outlined by Valdano, it was a suitable one for an Argentinian midfielder.
Kaká’s signing broke a record dating back to when Madrid lured Zinedine Zidane from Juventus in 2001; it would last all of three weeks as they signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for £80m before June was out.
The Portuguese star’s preference was the number 7 he had worn for United since 2003 – though, at the time, he wanted to keep the 28 he had had at Sporting – but of course that was held by club captain Raúl.
In 2000, Luís Figo had similarly been unable to wear 7 when he arrived and instead he took the number 10 but, at the time of Ronaldo’s move, that was still allocated to Wesley Sneijder. Instead, the Madeira native opted for the vacant number 9.
That had a knock-on effect for somebody else coming through the arrivals hall. Striker Karim Benzema was signed from Olympique Lyonnais, where had worn number 10, while with the France national team he had worn both 9 and 10.
With both of those out of reach, he instead plumped for 11, given up by Arjen Robben on his move to Bayern Munich.
Robben was not the only Dutchman to depart the Bernabéu that summer. In late August, Sneijder joined Internazionale, which left the number 10 shirt free. And yet, amid such a coterie of attacking stars, it ended up on a defensive midfielder.
We said we would return to the Diarras – with Mahamadou yet to return to action, Lassana retained 6 during much of pre-season. Mahamadou was due to be available again in September and so was included in the domestic and European squads, regaining 6 – and allowing Lassana to slip into the number 10.
Another piece of late-summer business saw Madrid sign full-back Álvaro Arbeloa from Liverpool – he took the number 2 that had belonged to Michel Salgado, who was released by the club. However, as fitting as it was, it wasn’t his ideal choice.
In total, it meant that seven of the 1-11 numbers had new owners compared to the 2008-09 season – only goalkeeper Iker Casillas (1), defenders Pepe (3) and Sergio Ramos (4) and Raúl remained in situ.
While they didn’t start any game 1-11 during the campaign, they came close in a 5-0 win at home to Xerez in September, with only defenders Marcelo (12), Raúl Albiol (18) and Ezequiel Garay (19) upsetting the traditionalists.
And yet, despite such upheaval, five of the 1-11 shirts would end up with new inhabitants during 2010-11.
As mentioned, Arbeloa’s preference was not 2 – he favoured number 17 and, when Ruud van Nistelrooy left in 2010, he replicated the switch he had made at Liverpool in 2007. Incidentally, another former Red moved to his preferred number; 22 was the only option available to Xabi Alonso when he signed before the end of the window in 2009, but he was able to take 14 upon the departure of Guti.
Guti wasn’t the only legend whose time at Madrid came to an end that summer – Raúl was off too, headed for Schalke after 16 seasons with his boyhood club. That of course allowed Cristiano Ronaldo to ascend (or descend in numerical terms) to the sacred 7 and Benzema was also able to subtract two, moving from 11 to 9.
The new number 11 was Esteban Granero, who had some low-key number drama the previous year.
When he signed from Getafe, he initially wore 23 in pre-season as it seemed as if Rafael van der Vaart would be leaving; however, when the Dutchman went against the Robben and Sneijder grain and stayed, Granero had been bumped to 24.
One player who didn’t change in the summer of 2010 was Lassana Diarra, the 10 in number if not in name. His namesake Mahamadou did not feature much after the injury and he left the club in January of 2011, moving to Monaco.
That meant that, when Madrid signed Emmanuel Adebayor on loan from Manchester City, the only free number available to him at the time was 6.
A centre-forward wearing 6 and a defensive midfielder wearing 10 looked unusual, to say the least.
